Hope Springs Always
by MaryChapel
Summary: Ever wonder what would happened if Kirk couldn't make up his mind on his ship, Spock couldn't conduct a proper mind meld and no-one on the Enterprise knew where they were for an extended period of time? Find out in the tale "Hope Springs Always" -NOW RESUMED!
1. Introduction

Far away, on the outer rim of the Milky Way, there is a lone planet orbiting a fading star. The beings on this planet call themselves the Esterants, and they are many. But there is one among them who is not like them. They call her Ranier, but that is not her name. She is the one who does not belong.

She is so very young, they say, so young and yet so alone. She needs others like her. We cannot give her what she needs.

Our planet is dying. We are old and dying. We are ready to cease. She is young. She wants to live. We want her to live.

We cannot give her life. We cannot give her certainty.

We can only give her hope.

_A/N. Thank you for reading this! I will try to post on a weekly basis every Sunday. _


	2. Chapter 1

**Well, here I am again. I couldn't wait for Sunday! (blushes) My muse is hyperactive right now, and I intend to take advantage of it.**

**Disclaimer: I do own my OCs and their planet. I do not own Star Trek:TOS.**

Chapter One

_Captain's Log, stardate unknown_

_After our delivery of the needed medicinal supplies to Lena 5, we were inexplicably flung off course by a rouge wormhole, which our sensors failed to detect in time. We are now in an uncharted part of the galaxy, if we are still in the known galaxy. Mr. Spock is running tests on all sensors to determine whether or not they were functioning properly at the time of impact with the wormhole._

Captain James T. Kirk shifted in his seat and looked over to the Science Station. "Well, Mr. Spock?"

"All sensors working, Captain. Nothing appears to be wrong with any of them, even after running a Level Two scan on all of them."

"Lieutenant Uhura, try to contact Starfleet Command and report to them our situation. Inform them that we have no idea where we are, and ask for assistance."

"Aye, aye sir."

Captain Kirk sighed. This was _not _turning out to be a good day. Getting all the medical supplies off the ship had been a nightmare, (they could under no circumstances use the transporter, as the majority of the supplies were extremely fragile) three food replicators were on the blink, (including the one that made the best coffee) and now he had to (basically) beg Starfleet Command for help. To top it all off, he had a cold.

Well, just a _little _one, but still enough to make life miserable. _I only hope Bones doesn't know about it yet._

"Captain! Someone's trying to contact us on channel five, sir. Sounds like the old Morse code for SOS."

"Keptin! Solar system coming up dead ahead. Looks like one planet orbiting a red star."

"Thank you, Lieutenant Uhura, Mr. Checov. Put the transmission on _cough_ audio, if you please."

"Aye, aye, sir. Transmission on audio now."

The transmission came through loud and clear in a strange, booming voice. "_beepbeepbeep _SOS to unknown starship. SOS to unknown starship."

Captain Kirk sat up a little straighter. "This is Captain James T. Kirk of the United Federation starship _Enterprise._"

"Are you human, Captain James T. Kirk? Do you come from the planet Earth?"

_Well, this is a new one. _"Yes, we come from the planet known as Earth, and we are human."

"Good. We have one of your kind here. She needs others like her. She cannot live here much longer. We need to talk to you to ascertain if you are what you say you are before we can give her to you. Does it please you to come to our home, or shall we come to you?"

Captain Kirk paused. "You say you have one of our kind. _cough_ How did she get there? And may I ask what kind of beings you are?"

"We are the Esterants. The one of your kind that lives with us came by strange ways that we do not fully understand. She cannot live here much longer. Will you come to us, or shall we come to you?"

By this time, everyone on the Bridge was listening in. Captain Kirk looked around. "We'll, ah, come to you. Is your home on that lone planet orbiting the red star?" _cough cough_

"It is so. We are pleased to speak with you, Captain James. T. Kirk. We look forward to meeting you."

Lieutenant Uhura looked up. "Communication cut off, sir. Shall I try to re-establish it?"

"No, Lieutenant. Mr. Spock, can we beam down to that planet?"

"Affirmative, Captain. Sensors indicate that there is a small patch below that is rated Class M. Atmosphere, temperature, and surface all are within acceptable ranges."

"Very well, Mr. Spock. Mr. Sulu, assume standard orbit around that planet. You have the comm. Mr. Spock, come with me to the transporter room. Lieutenant Uhura, contact Doctor McCoy and have him meet us there. We're going to solve this mystery."

_A/N: Thank you all so much for reading! Special thanks goes to Galadriela, Pip the Dark Lord of All, and mtcbones for their kind words of encouragement. I post bi-weekly, on Sundays and Wednesdays now. _


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: Happy Easter to all! And to everyone who reviewed...THANK YOU! It's very much appreciated. **

Chapter Two

The first impression Doctor McCoy had of the strange new planet was that it was misty, but dry. Winds swept across the plains, chill and bitter.

"Spock. Gotta explanation for this fog?" he asked, bouncing slightly on his toes.

"Negative, Doctor. The tricorder does not register any water vapor in the air. However, it does register strong life readings around us."

Captain Kirk looked around, trying hard to suppress another coughing spell. "Well, where are these life forms?"

"We are here, Captain James T. Kirk. We are pleased to meet you in person."

The mist swirled into three distinct clouds and moved towards them. As it moved, three human figures formed from it. Two were colored a faint gray, and the other was tinged with a faint pink. They swayed in the wind like paper dolls.

"Fascinating, Captain. It appears that the mist itself is composed of gaseous life forms, whose life processes are unknown to us."

"We are the Esterants. We desire to give you the female of your kind for her safety. We do not wish for anything else, Captain James T. Kirk. Are you willing to take her?" asked the pink one in a much higher voice than the one they had heard before.

"Well, I think we need to know some more about you and your kind before we agree to anything, gentlebeings," Kirk responded. "May I know whom I am addressing?" _cough. _

The forms shifted slightly. "You are addressing Be'thul, Captain James T. Kirk. I am Ji'lep, and the other is my brother, Ji'lop," one of the gray forms responded in a deep, sonorous voice.

"I see. Well, I'm very pleased to meet you, gentlebeings. May I ask why this "female of our kind" needs to come with us for her safety?"

"Our world is dying, and so are we. She must go with you. That is the reason we contacted your ship to us." Be'thul answered.

Kirk started. "You...contacted us only to see if we would take this girl?" _cough. _"I'm _fine, _Bones! Stop looking at me like that!"

"Yes, Captain James T. Kirk. For the sake of the one we cherish, we did so." Be'thul swayed in the wind. "She is coming now."

"Jim! Look! Someone's coming out of the mists over there!" Doctor McCoy pointed. "Looks like a human to me."

Through the mists, the three men could see something or _someone _coming towards them through the mists which blew around it. It looked like a human girl dressed in some kind of flowing garment. Spock pointed his tricorder at the figure.

"Captain, Doctor, it is indeed a human girl of about sixteen. Fascinating. I had assumed we were the first space ship to ever land here."

"You were, strange one with the pointed ears. She came to us by ways unknown," Ji'lep? Ji'lop? answered. "She is our youngest and best beloved."

"Wall, that's the first time I've heard you addressed that way, Spock, though it suits you to a T," chuckled the doctor.

"The strange one with the pointed ears is called Spock?" inquired one of the two gray figures.

"That is his name," answered Kirk, slightly nonplussed at the Esterants' attitude towards them.

"Then we shall call him so."

The mists besides Be'thul suddenly blew away, and the girl stood there, panting slightly. Her long white hooded garment rippled around her, and she pulled the upper part of it closer to her.

"I am here, Be'thul. Are these the ones you spoke of?" she asked in a clear, very American-sounding voice, despite the strange phrasing.

_A/N Cliffhanger! Are you ready for Wednesday? :)_


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter Three.

"Ra'nier. I am pleased that you came. Are you cold?" Be'thul inquired.

"Be'thul. I am cold, but I do not desire you should warm me. Ha'yit has informed me of the troubles you have already taken for me," the girl—_Ra'nier—_Kirk reminded himself, answered quickly. "I don't want to—"

"Stop. We have discussed this before, Ra'nier. Ha'yit is a fool and the son of a fool. I will warm you," one of the gray figures told her.

"Oh, _all right_ then, Ji'lop," Ra'nier sighed. "You never take 'no' for an answer, anyway."

Ji'lop's figure disappeared into a cloud of mist around the girl. Be'thul turned to the three men again.

"Will you take her? Our planet is dying. We are dying. When we found your ship, we hoped that we could give our Ra'nier something more than hope. We do not have long to live. She does, and she pines for her home and others of your kind."

Kirk looked at Spock and Bones. "Well, gentlemen?" _cough_

"Jim, we still don't know much of anything about these people! We can't just take the girl like that!" McCoy protested in a low tone.

"I must agree with the doctor. It would be most illogical to take this Ra'nier aboard the _Enterprise _without first obtaining more information," Spock replied.

"We cannot give you what you desire to know. Our use of your language is limited," Ji'lep cut in. "We can only ask you to trust us."

"Well, we can talk to the girl, right?" asked McCoy.

"Of course you may! I'm right here. My English name is Kathryn. What are your names?" Ra'nier's voice broke through the mists, followed by her appearance out of the mists behind Kirk.

"I'm Captain James Kirk of the starship _Enterprise. _This is my first officer Mr. Spock and my chief medical officer Doctor McCoy," Kirk made the introductions.

"Pleased to meet you, gentlemen, though I do wish the circumstances were different. What did you want to ask me?" Kathryn asked straightforwardly. "If you want to know how I got here, I'm afraid I can't answer that question, but I'll do my best to answer your other questions."

"Why can't you tell us what brought you here?" asked Kirk.

"I don't know, that's why," Ra'nier—Kathryn answered, scrubbing her face with her hands. "I'm originally from Earth, like your ship is. The twenty-first century, to be exact."

"That's impossible, Jim! Someone's gotta be lying here," McCoy whispered.

"I know my story is incredible, but what reason have I to lie?" Kathryn looked directly at McCoy.

"The problem is, Miss Kathryn, it is now, by your Earth standards, the year 2264," Spock coolly interjected.

Kathryn's eyes widened. "I have _not _been her for that long!" she declared. "Ask Be'thul!"

"Indeed, Spock, she has only been here for two years of your time," Be'thul said softly. "But our time runs short. Our power is fading. The planet is decaying. Will you take her or not?"

Captain Kirk faced Kathryn squarely. "Do you want to come with us?" he asked directly.

"I don't want to, but I don't have a choice, Captain. If I want to live, I must come with you." Kathryn's eyes, a clear nut brown, filled with tears. "Be'thul is right; everything is dying here, except me." She looked down, biting her lip.

Doctor McCoy gently touched her arm. Kathryn's head jerked up in surprise. "Are you all right, Miss?" he asked her.

"Yes, yes...it's just been so long since another person touched me," she stammered out.

The chirp of a communicator sounded through the increasingly cold wind. Captain Kirk flipped it open.

"Kirk to _Enterprise._"

"Sulu here, Captain. The small habitable zone you are in is breaking down. Shall we beam you aboard?"

"Stand by, Mr. Sulu. Beam us up on my signal. Kirk out."

Suddenly, the wind picked up. The air began to thin around them. Be'thul vanished into the mists. The gray figures were gone. Kathryn looked around, her face darkening.

"Captain, if you want to leave, with or without me, you are going to have to do it...NOW!" she shouted though the roar of the wind. "Be'thul has lost her power over the atmosphere!"

The wind tossed all four of them to the ground in a heap. Loud _cracks _of thunder boomed over their heads. Sand beat their faces. Kirk groped for and found his communicator.

"Sulu! Four to beam up!"

"We can't lock on to you, Captain! The whole planet's gone haywire!" Scotty's voice shouted. "Can ye hang in there?"

"We can't! The atmosphere's going!" Kirk shouted back.

"Captain! We'll get there anyway..." Kathryn's voice faded out as they disappeared in a flash.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter Four.

**A/N: Thank you all for reading this so far! Special thanks to Pip the Dark Lord of All and Galadriela for reviewing the last chapter. **

**One little thing: Kathryn's eyes are BLUE, not brown! (as stated in the last chapter)**

**Now, on the the story! :)**

Thirty seconds later, Spock was not-annoyed-because-that-is-an-emotion to find himself on the bottom of a pile of people on the Bridge of the _Enterprise_ in front of an astounded Bridge crew. _This is highly discomforting, _he reflected silently as he observed the fact that he was nose-to-nose with a bemused CMO.

"Captain! Are ye all right, sir?" asked Scotty, pulling Kirk out of the pile. "We though we'd lost ya!"

Kirk yanked down his shirt and gave Kathryn a hand up. "Quite all right, Scotty, though we do have a bit of a problem."

"Its name is Kathryn Douglas," Kathryn put in, curtsying to Scotty. "How do you do, sir?"

McCoy scrambled off Spock and snickered at Scotty's bug-eyed expression. Spock arose, quirked an eyebrow, and walked over to his Science station.

"Ah'm verra well, lass. Are ye Scottish with that last name and those eyes?"

For the first time, Kirk actually looked at Kathryn. He realized that her hood was down, showing off a head of sleek brown hair arranged in a braided crown. She had some kind of heavy, white, furred cloak on, and her shoes looked like genuine leather. Her eyes were gray-blue, and she was smiling at Scotty.

"I actually am sir. On my father's side."

Before anything else could be said, the comm cracked to life. "Transporter Room to Captain Kirk."

Kirk moved over to his seat. "Kirk here. What is it?"

"Four parcels just beamed aboard sir, all on their own. Scans show surprising amounts of objects stored in them." The voice hesitated, then continued, "We can't find out anything else from the scans. The boxes/containers won't let us."

"Um, Captain Kirk, I think those are mine." Kathryn walked over to him. "One of my friends must have moved them here for me. If they are mine, I assure you that there is nothing dangerous to the _Enterprise _in them. I believe they contain books, clothes, some cosmetics and jewelry, a harp, a flipple flute, and stationary." She broke off for a second, looking confused. Pressing her fingers to her temples, she continued, "You are welcomed to go through them, if you so desire."

Kirk shook his head and stared at her. "Boxes that defy scanning? I think some questions are in order, Miss Kathryn."

Stormy gray-blue eyes gazed soberly at him. "I must agree, Captain. I can't clean the mess up all the way, but I can give you some answers. Would you like me to tell my story here, or someplace else?" The same puzzled expression from before flittered over her face and she frowned.

"Keptin! The planet below us has just...disintegrated, sir! A small chunk of it seems to be flying away from the rest under its own power," Checov interjected.

"Mr. Spock?" Kirk turned to his First Officer. "What is that chunk?" _coughcoughcough _"Ugh!"

"It appears to be under control by something, Captain, presumably the inhabitants of that planet. I would say that it is a camouflaged primitive spacecraft, based on the scans. Scans indicate life forms on it."

"Can we contact them?" Kirk asked. _cough_

"I wouldn't do that, Captain, sir. I have good reason to believe that _is _a spacecraft, and that rogue Esterants are piloting it," Kathryn answered tightly, clasping her hands in front of her. "They would not answer a call from this ship. They would simply try to take over it once they knew that you meant no harm."

"Captain! The chunk just blew up," Sulu reported. "Nothing's left of it, sir."

Kathryn's eyes widened. McCoy, the closest one to her, saw her frown, and heard her whisper"Be'thul? Ji'lep? Be'tith? Anyone?"

Her face crumpled. "Everyone's dead," she whispered. "I can't hear my family anymore." She brought her hands up to her face, fighting back tears. "Everyone...just gone...all the Esterants..."

"Are ye all right, lass?" Scotty got up from his station and came over to her, worry written all over his expressive face.

Katheryn shook her head. "No. My family..." Her shoulders began to shake.

McCoy walked over to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "There, there, Kathryn," he said softly, rubbing her shoulders soothingly.

He looked over to Kirk. "Jim, she's totally beat. I should get her—_and _you, with that hacking cough!- down to Sickbay ASAP."

The comm chose that moment to hum to life. "Transporter Room to Captain Kirk. What do you want us to do with these parcels, sir?"


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

**A/N: Here we go again! Special thanks to mtcbones, copperdragon2, and Galadriela for their reviews.**

**All disclaimers are, for the record, on my profile.**

Captain Kirk was less than pleased. In fact, what with a hacking cough, the beginnings of a migraine and a sobbing girl on _his _Bridge, he was _very _displeased with the situation at hand.

He slowly got up. "Bones...take the girl down to Sickbay. I want a full report on her. Spock, will you try again to figure out where we are? Uhura, did you get that message sent to Starfleet?"

"All right, Jim. But I want to see ya down there sometime today. Hear that?"

"Very well, Captain."

"No, Captain. I could not contact Starfleet Command at all, sir."

Kirk punched the comm with more force than necessary. "Kirk here. Hold those parcels in the Transporter Room till further notice. Kirk out."

Doctor McCoy gently led a now sniffing Kathryn to Sickbay. He noticed that she did not seem surprised at the turbolift, nor at the sight of the passing people, or the equipment. She did, however keep her fingers on her temples _as if, _he thought _she was fighting something in her mind. Prob'ly the stress, _he decided. _But it's almost _he reflected _like she was used to the corridors of a starship!_

They arrived at the Sickbay. He waved Kathryn in ahead of him.

"Here Kathryn. Just step on this and I'll have you checked out in no time," he assured her, tipping down the nearest biobed.

With a watery smile, Kathryn obeyed.

The biobed pulsed to life. McCoy scanned the panel above it. Kathryn did her level best to see the panel too, but just ended up crossing her eyes.

"Well, you're healthy for a sixteen year old Earth girl, but you could use some weight gain, and your stress indicator's through the roof, Kathryn," he announced. "And when did you last eat?"

Kathryn looked at him. "I'm really eighteen years old, and I haven't eaten anything ever since I arrived at the Esterants' planet, Doctor. I didn't need to eat down there. Be'thul took care of that. But I am hungry now."

"What?! Ya mean to tell me that you haven't eaten in two years? That's impossible!" McCoy's eyes bugged out.

She gave him a little smile. "It's true, Doctor."

"That is one problem we're going to fix right now," he declared as Christine Chapel paused by them. "Chris, will you get this girl a bowl of chicken noodle soup? And would you bring me a coffee and join us in my office?"

"Right away, Doctor," Chapel smiled at him and Kathryn as she walked away.

"Here, let's getcha up, and we'll sit down for a bit," he told Kathryn, tipping the bed up.

She got off and glared at it. "I do _not _like lying on my back," she remarked, turning to him with another little smile. "I prefer to squirrel among multiple blankets and pillows, like a bird in a nest."

"Yeah, Jim—the Captain—is like that too," he said nonchalantly "Makes no end of trouble when he's in Sickbay."

"I can only imagine," Kathryn rolled her eyes. "He reminds me of my older brother Tom; wonderful leader, horrible patient."

"That describes the Captain to a T." They shared a chuckle.

McCoy thought this was a good opening. "Do you mind stepping over ta my office? We can sit down there and chat for awhile," he asked her.

Kathryn shrugged and tugged at her dress. "Why not? It makes a good story anyhow." The same puzzled frown settled back over her face. "Are you telepathic?" she asked McCoy.

Before he could answer her, the comm whirled. "Kirk to McCoy."

McCoy muttered something under his breath as he tapped the switch. "What is it, Jim?"

"Bring Kathryn to the briefing room now. I want to get to the bottom of this mess and she's the key. Kirk out."

McCoy looked at Kathryn, who of course, had heard it all. Her posture shifted and screamed _frighted _at him, and her hands balled into fists, but her face dropped into a blank. Too blank to be real.

"_Very _like Tom. Shall we go, Doctor?"

_A/N Please tell me what you think! See ya soon!_


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N: Sorry this was up late; Real life got in the way. (Ugh!) Thank you so much for reading, and special thanks, as always to those who reviewed the last chapter!**

Chapter Six

Lieutenant Uhura was unsure whether to be sorry, sympathetic, intrigued, or worried as she made her way to the Briefing Room.

After all, it wasn't every day a complete stranger showed up on the Bridge via some kind of mysterious transporter beam.

Captain Kirk had asked her to come with him to question the girl—Kathryn—because "she might open up better to you than she would to me, Uhura."

Frankly, if what her eyes had told her and if what scuttlebutt said was true (and since Sulu had affirmed the rumors, it probably _was _true) the poor girl was likely to be traumatized and in no state to answer the questions of an irate James Kirk.

_I hope he's not too angry. Perhaps I can get someone to bring drinks part-way through, _she thought. _That might help._

She rounded the corner, and saw McCoy and Katheryn going into the Briefing Room. McCoy did not look pleased, and Katheryn's face (from what Uhura could see of it) was stony cold.

_And just why is my mind screaming "Red Alert?" _she rhetorically asked herself as she followed them.

TOS-TOS-TOS

Doctor McCoy cracked his knuckles as he plopped down in the nearest seat. Katheryn worried him. Her stress was clearly written on her face as she stiffly sat down across from Captain Kirk.

_This ougtta be int'resting _he thought wryly. _She looks like she's about to run for the hills. And Jim looks like he's about to chew someone out. And what did she mean when she asked me "Are you telepathic?"_

Kirk leaned forward, lacing his fingers together as he stared intently at Katheryn. She stared right back, mouth tight and hands clasped.

"Miss Katheryn, can you explain to us what brought my landing party and yourself to the Bridge?" he said abruptly.

"I have every reason to think that it was one of my friends, trying to protect us," she answered him evenly. "However, I cannot give you proof of that, as they all have died." Her hands unclasped her cloak and slipped it off, revealing a very pretty Grecian white dress with short sleeves.

"Do you know how your friends could have done that?" Kirk inquired, clapping a hand over his mouth as he coughed hard.

Katheryn shook her head. "I do not. However, I have been transported thus before, and nothing has ever come of it, except being in a new place."

Lieutenant Uhura smiled softly. "That is a beautiful dress you have on, Miss Katheryn," she said, trying to alleviate the rising stress factor in the room.

Katheryn turned to Uhura. "Thank you, ma'am. My "mother" (she indicated air quotes around the words) made this for me. Please, all of you, call me Kathryn."

"A pretty name for a pretty girl," McCoy interjected smoothly. She smiled at him, but it was strained.

"Well, then, Katheryn, what can you tell us about the Esterants?" Kirk coughed again, earning him a stink eye from McCoy.

"Captain Kirk, the Esterants _were _a people made up from clouds of gas. They were very advanced—they had a lot of knowledge about the laws of the universe and how things worked and didn't work. They were telepathic and, before I came, did not know what emotion was." Here Katheryn pulled a little face, evidently remembering something. "They could and did manipulate matter to suit themselves, and they could replicate almost anything you wanted, if they had sufficient knowledge of it. However, their lives were linked to the planet somehow, which is why they could not come with me. Is that what you wanted to know?"

McCoy noticed that Katheryn's clenched fists were smeared with red and that her face was paling quickly. _This is not good at all._

Kirk unlaced his fingers. "You used the word _were. _Does that mean that the Esterants are—"

"They are all dead, as far as I know," Katheryn answered flatly. "I had mentioned that they were a telepathic people; I apparently am slightly telepathic as well. My Esterant family, the most powerful family on that planet, had a certain presence in my mind, as if they were always just one room away from me. We were able to speak to each other through it. It...is gone now, and all other impressions of the Esterants have been..." she groped for the right word "erased. As if they...never" her face visibly crumpled "had existed."

"Kathryn...your hands?" McCoy put in. "Y'need to let go, girl."

He gently took her left hand in his hand. She flinched and pulled away from him, gripping her hands tighter. "Don't," she whispered. "I can't cope otherwise..."

McCoy turned to Kirk. "Jim, can't this wait?" he asked plainly.

"No, Bones, it can't." Kirk got up and strode over to Katheryn. "Can you tell us anything, _anything _else about them?" he asked intently, grasping her wrists lightly. "The _Enterprise _could be at stake here, along with the lives of hundreds of people! We—I need to know more about them, and you!"

"Please...I...your thoughts..." Kathryn gasped, turning white. Her face twisted, as if she was in pain. She tried to pull away from Kirk. "Let...me...go!"

With a little sigh, she fainted dead away.

_A/N: I'll answer some of your questions here as well as respond to the guest who reviewed. This way, everyone else can see the answers too! Thanks for asking them!_

_Solo2863: I tried to write it in a way that would show the reader that Bones was just trying to make Kathryn feel more at ease around him. One of those, "You live in X? My aunt lives there as well." conversations._

_LauraCynthia: Wait and see...:)_

_mtcbones: I did not like Charlie X either. :) _

_Trekfan (guest) Thank you for the comment about speech tags. However, I haven't yet used any semi-colons, so I don't know where that comment came from. Also, there's no rule about that that I can find on the Internet._


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N: Are you all ready? :) Special thanks to mctbones, LauraCynthia, **** .Mistress.92, and BlueNBlackNeko for their reviews.**

Chapter Seven

McCoy quickly moved to Kirk's side. "I did try to tell ya, Jim," he groused. "Why didn't ya listen to me?"

Kirk looked at him from over an armful of Kathryn. "Bones..."

The rest of what he was going to say disappeared in a harder fit of coughing.

"Here, lay her down," McCoy directed him, pushing aside chairs. "Spock, can people faint if they're hit hard with other people's thoughts?"

One slanted eyebrow went up. "It could be a possibility. She did say she was slightly telepathic," Spock answered.

"The problem with that statement is that Bones, Lieutenant Uhura and I are all virtually psi-null, and you, Spock, are _coughcough _heavily shielded," Kirk pointed out. "There's no way we could have sent thoughts to her, inadvertently or otherwise."

"Could she have picked up on our thoughts involuntary?" Uhura's soft voice asked.

McCoy looked up from checking Kathryn. "She'd have to be quite a telepath to do that. Her use of the word 'slightly' I think marks that offa the list."

Kirk considered. "Could the stress of loosing loved ones make her faint?"

"Indeed. That is a logical explanation, Captain," Spock said as he moved towards the three. "I suggest that this questioning wait until Miss Kathryn is slightly more recovered."

"Well, you're not going to get much outta here right now!" McCoy snarked back. "Something isn't making sense here, and I think that blasted wormhole is at the bottom of it, not the girl!"

Before Spock could retort, Kirk cut in, "Gentlemen! Please, not now!" He broke off into a fit of coughing.

"That definitely sounds worse than before, Jim. What are you coming down with now?" McCoy wondered aloud, walking over to Kirk.

"Bones! I can _cough _wait. Get that girl up and running again first!"

"Now, lissen here, Jim—"

"Doctor, she's waking up," Uhura said gently as she sat down by Kathryn. "She seems to be very agitated somehow. Her hands are all bloody!"

McCoy dropped the argument and came over to the two women. "Oh, that. Nyota, she was clenching them really hard when Jim was talking to her, for some reason. It's only scratches," he assured her. "Now, why is she so agitated?" he asked as Kathryn began to toss and turn.

Suddenly, Kathryn's eyes fluttered open and she looked around, her eyes now worried and strained.

"Where am I?" she asked plaintively. "Please, someone, tell me this is a dream, and that I'm not going crazy."

"I'm afraid, Kathryn, this is no dream," McCoy answered her.

"You are on the starship _Enterprise, _Miss Kathryn," Spock's voice carried across the room.

Kathryn pushed herself up with the same puzzled expression from before on her face, this time tinged with exasperation. "Please, who's telepathic in here? You're very open to me, and I can't block y'all right now. Would you please...oh, I don't know!...tone it down a bit? For your sake as well as mine?"

TOS-TOS-TOS

"Miss Kathryn. No one in this room is telepathic except myself," Spock's cool voice answered her. "And I assure you that I am not sending any thoughts to your mind."

Kathryn glanced at him. Her eyes closed and scrunched up. Spock's eyebrows promptly flew up into his bangs, much to the surprise of everyone else.

"Did you hear that?" she asked him seriously, opening her eyes.

Kirk shook his head. _This is ridiculous!_ "Spock, what's going on?" he asked, relieved that the coughing fits seemed to be calming down.

"I believe Miss Kathryn just sent a mental message to me, telling me that she was pretty sure she could not hear my thoughts," Spock replied slowly. "Fascinating. I was not aware that humans were capable of such messages."

Kirk turned to Kathryn. "How did you do that?" he asked, a note of frustration creeping into his tone.

_The same way I did this, _a thought entered his mind. _Forgive me; I did not know I could do it until I tried!_

"Will someone enlighten the rest of us down here?" McCoy's voice interrupted crossly.

_Delighted, Doctor. Apparently, I am capable of sending telepathic messages. That is as far as we have got, _a soft voice slipped into his mind, much to his astonishment.

"Look, I'm really sorry, but I had to find out how far this could go," Kathryn said aloud to her shocked audience as she sat up. "I'm picking up on at least three people's emotions in here, along with some scattered thoughts along the lines of "what the heck?!" without even trying. Are you sure no-one's telepathic in here except Mr. Spock?"

"I am sure. Miss Katheryn, did you always have this...capacity?" Spock inquired, wondering internally how she could stand being bombarded by irrational and random thoughtwaves.

"Just Katheryn, please. I did not," she answered. "Before I came to the Esterants' planet, I was more attuned to what other people really meant what they said or did not say, but I did not think I was telepathic. After I met the Esterants, who were a totally telepathic race, they taught me how to communicate with them, and how to build mental shields. However, I also taught them how to articulate words. So, while we still used thought most of the time, I was not dependent on it. When you landed on the planet, I realized that all of a sudden, I could hear what I presume were the Captain and the doctor's thoughts. Yours, Mr. Spock, were very faint, and I did not attempt to pry into them. For the entire time I have been aboard this ship, I have picked up on many people's emotions/thoughts, and until now, I have done my best to stay away from them. However, I can't do even that anymore, after fainting—apparently from the effort put into blocking all the thoughts. I have no idea how far this...ability...goes or can go because I wasn't even aware I had it until now, much less the ability to send thoughts to other humans." Kathryn sighed and pulled herself unsteadily to her feet. "You see, I'm as much as a mystery to myself as I am to you. Oh!"

Uhura caught her hand just before she fell. "Thanks, ma'am," Kathryn smiled at her. "Goodness me!" She swayed again, and caught herself on the edge of the table.

"You'd better sit down, Kathryn," McCoy moved quickly over to her side.

"I feel like a new-born kitten," Kathryn groused softly as McCoy helped her sit down. "Tom would've been ashamed of me."

She looked up and realized that McCoy was slightly puzzled. "Tom's my older brother," she clarified. "Or _was,_" she amended, a shadow slipping over her face. "Human brother," she added. "Oh, dear! The story's all coming out wrong!" She sighed crossly, and propped her head on her hands, eyes shut tight.

No one was quite sure how to answer that, and the silence became awkward. Captain Kirk stared at the floor, wondering how in the world to proceed. Uhura glanced from Spock to Kirk to Kathryn, unsure what to do. Spock calmly surveyed everyone. McCoy muttered something crude under his breath.

Finally, Kathryn opened her eyes, glanced at all of them, and gave them a brittle smile.

"I have got some control over my mind now, so I can block most of the thoughts. Now, where should I start?" she asked.

_A/N: Please review! They help me write longer chapters...:)_


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N: Thank you all so much, especially those who reviewed! I was rather sick last week, and the reviews helped pull me through. :) I would love to respond to you individually, but RL for me is so busy! :( Sorry!**

Chapter Eight

"Well, perhaps at the beginning. Why don't you just tell us the whole story?" Kirk answered, deciding that it couldn't hurt and that at any rate it would be better than guessing from the scraps that she had let fall in the conversations before.

Kathryn nodded. "I will give you the short version, however—the long one is best found in my" she hesitated, then hurried on "private journal, which you may read if you really need to. Do sit down; this will take some time. Please don't say anything," she cut McCoy off. "It's hard enough as it is."

"My full name is Kathryn Ceridwen Douglas, and I'm apparently eighteen years old, though I haven't changed at all in the last two years. About two Earth years ago, I was playing my harp in my family's hay field on a summer's day. Somehow, I was transported to the Esterant planet, where I was found by Ji'lep, who you met, Captain. I have no idea how I got there, or who would have transported me thus. The person/thing" she shrugged rapidly "whatever it was also sent with me a number of good books and a diary, along with whatever I was in physical contact with at the time of the transporting."

"Ji'lep could not comprehend what kind of being I was, or what I had brought with me, but he saw right away that I could not breathe the atmosphere of his planet for any length of time unharmed. After some frightening trial and error, he created a sort of bubble of breathable air around me, then brought me to his mother, Be'thul, who is—_was _the matriarch/queen of the Esterants, after the death of her husband."

"After some...interesting, shall we say...experiences in which we all learned much, I was accepted by most of the Esterants. We learned much from each other, and they named me Ra'nier, which means innocent child, because, to them, I was just a kid—the baby of the whole community. Be'thul adopted me into her family, in a matter of speaking, and I became very good friends with many of the Esterants, though some were violently opposed to my presence on the planet."

"The Esterants who were opposed to me were also a group who was determined to get off the planet before it died. Now, I don't really understand this myself, but Be'thul told me once that their lives were linked to their planet, and they could never leave it. The group wouldn't believe that, and they believed I was the key to getting them off the planet."

Here, Kathryn paused, fighting back tears. "They took advantage of me," she continued, almost crying. "One of my close friends was associated with them, and she...she invaded my mind, trying to find information about spacecraft. When I threw my shields back up and called for help, she fled. At the time, I thought it was just a misunderstanding, but later that day, I was kidnapped, and one of the Esterants—Ti'lace—my sister, even though we were different" she added this bit defiantly—"was murdered when she tried to help me."

"I did not know very much about spacecraft at all, and what I knew was the stuff of TV episodes—sci-fi junk, mostly, but it was enough for them. They took all they could get from my mind, and fled, leaving me to suffocate in the natural atmosphere of the planet. Ji'lop found me just in time to save me from dying."

"From then on, open war raged over the planet. Be'thul and her chief...officers, I guess, were furious that anyone would dare invade someone else's mind, especially a child's mind like the rogue Esterants did to me. They told me that no-one had ever done such a thing before in their entire history, nor had murder happened on their land for untold count of years. It took me a long time to recover from that, and I only did so because my siblings almost forced me back to health."

"By this time, time was running out. Be'thul knew the planet was dying under her. It had been an accepted fact for a long time. But now, I was there, and all my family and friends were determined that I should leave the planet before it was destroyed. They searched the skies, trying to find a spacecraft willing to take me. I didn't want to go." Tears slid down Kathryn's cheeks, but she pushed them away. "I just wanted to either go home to Earth, or stay with them, but they insisted. I was all they had left to love, and they didn't want to loose me too."

She bit her lip and whispered through her tears, "Why?" The pain behind the word was almost tangible.

"Anyway," she continued, almost sobbing aloud, "Then the _Enterprise _came along, and well, you know the rest. Forgive me. I can't—you have no reason to believe me—I—"

She stopped abruptly and buried her face in her hands, sobbing like her heart was breaking.


	10. Chapter 9

**A/N: Thank you all for reading/reviewing/favoriting so far! RL has settled down now, so I will be responding individually again.**

Chapter Nine.

Doctor McCoy stood up, knocked his chair over, and headed straight for Kathryn. "Shhhh, shhh, it's all right," he comforted, rubbing her shoulders. "Just hold on to the good memories. Here, take deep breathes." He shook his head, wondering about this strange girl.

Another awkward silence settled over the room, broken only by muffled sobs. Finally, the comm whirled. "Bridge to Captain Kirk," Sulu's voice crackled.

Kirk made a beeline for the comm. "Kirk here."

"Your update, sir. Still in unknown territory. Everything is strange. We must presume that wormhole has flung us either farther across the galaxy than anyone else has been before or that we are, sir, in another galaxy."

"Thank you. Kirk out." Kirk slammed his fist down on the comm, frustration written all over his face.

"Fascinating, Captain. It would appear that the old theory concerning wormholes could be true," Spock said, moving over to Kirk, eyebrow quirked.

"Only you could think about something like that at a time like this, Spock!" McCoy exclaimed crossly.

"Thank you, Doctor. I refer, of course to the theory that wormholes such as the one we encountered are, in fact, gateways to other universes."

"Which could explain the differences in the stars!" Kirk's mind was almost visibly turning. "And maybe it could explain Kathryn too!"

"But if it that's true, then we're _stuck _here, maybe for good!" McCoy pointed out, moving over to Kirk and Spock. "This is nothing like that other time we ended up in another universe*! The whole ship's here!"

Uhura blinked. Things had been happening so fast, she had not really thought about the possibility of being trapped in another universe. The very words conjured up pictures from the _ISS Enterprise_, which she shied away from.

Kathryn, surprisingly, had got herself under control, (sniffing and hiccup stage, McCoy noted) and now looked thoughtful. Her hands crooked, right above left, and her fingers began to wave in patterns.

"Miss Kathryn, are you playing a phantom Terran harp?" Spock inquired, looking at her hands.

She glanced at him. Her eyes looked almost like she was expecting this question, yet were just a little surprised all the same. "Yes...yes I am, for lack of the real thing. It helps me calm down," she answered. "I believe my harp is in one of the boxes that I presume are in the Transporter Room." She spoke jerkily, her hiccups breaking through at intervals. "There might be some answers for you in those boxes, gentlemen, and Ms. Uhura, though," a twinkle came back to her eyes, "I'm not quite sure if they will answer all the questions brought _up _by them!" She giggled a bit through her tears. "And if they _are _bigger on the inside...!**" she whispered, heard only by Spock.

Kirk reflected that Spock's eyebrows must be getting quite a workout today as they once again flew up to his bangs.

"Miss Kathryn, did you just say that your boxes could be "bigger on the inside"?" he asked.

Her face wrinkled in consternation, but with the twinkle and the tears, the effect was comical. "Oh dear. Yes, I did, but I can't explain it without showing you the boxes. It's a sort of high-tech technology that the Time—er, the Esterants made. Look, why don't you go through my boxes?" she asked. "At this point, anything I say will just raise more questions."

Kirk walked over to Kathryn. He paused, unsure what to say. "Kathryn..."

"I know. You don't have any proof of anything. How can you be sure what I'm saying is the truth? For all you know, I'm some freaky alien—please, no offense, Mr. Spock—who's trying to take over the ship!" Kathryn said, hopelessness creeping into her voice and eyes. "I don't know what to do either."

She abruptly stood up and, clutching the table, made her way over to the seat which her cloak was tossed over. She grabbed it and huddled it around herself, looking very lost.

TOS-TOS-TOS

Kirk walked after Kathryn. "Kathryn, we will try to believe you," he said, pulling a chair over and sitting down in from of her. "Can you tell us anything else?"

She looked at him. "I don't know. I honestly don't have the understanding or the knowledge needed to explain the science behind the Esterants, the wormholes or transporter beams. I only have some theories. Do you want me to give you those?"

Kirk nodded. "Go ahead, if you think it will help." He gave her a little smile, trying to put her more at ease.

"I think a temporal disturbance tossed me into this universe, and I think the wormhole pulled you into it," Kathryn said. "I'm almost sure it was a temporal disturbance that brought me to the Esterants' planet, and that would be the only explanation for the change in the stars."

"Temporal disturbance? Like a rip through time and space? I thought those things were fairy tales!" McCoy exclaimed.

"Fairy tales have to start someplace. My family's farm has—had an odd history of disappearances and strange things happening on it—two disappearances and any number of stories dating back a hundred years and more," Kathryn smiled faintly. "My family thought the stories were great fun," she added wistfully. "I often wished that I could find one of them to be true. Not like this, though!"

"A temporal disturbance is possible, Captain," Spock said. "I have reason to believe that the Guardian* was one such disturbance, carefully controlled. However, I have not heard any theories about temporal disturbances being able to facilitate travel between universes as well as travel between times and places. It would be a most fascinating subject."

"Wall, I don't know about the rest of you, but it's just about time for lunch, and I'm mighty hungry. I'm sure you are too, Kathryn. Why don't we continue this discussion over some food?" McCoy asked, deciding that it was high time they all got out of there.

"Good idea, Bones. Kathryn?" Kirk asked.

"That's fine with me, Captain," she answered. "In fact, I'm quite hungry."

"Considering that you said you haven't eaten in _two years _I expect you would be," McCoy pointed out dryly.

Kathryn turned bright pink as everyone's eyes flicked towards her. "Well, you see, Be'thul took care of that somehow—_I _don't know how she did it, but I didn't need to eat there. I know it sounds fantastic, but honestly, what part of my story doesn't?"

"Right. Bones, take Kathryn down to Officer's Mess. Mr. Spock and I will join you shortly. Lieutenant Uhura, you may go," Kirk said, deciding that he had to salvage the situation somehow.

"Aye, aye, sir," Uhura answered, slipping out of the room.

"Well, Kathryn?" McCoy asked, offering her his arm.

She slipped her hand through with a smile, and they walked out of the room. Spock caught the tail end of McCoy's question "...how _did _you manage it?" and Kirk was slightly amused to see him quirk his eyebrow once more.

"Mr. Spock, let's head to the Bridge to check in on things, then head down for lunch as well," he said, moving towards the door.

*_Mirror, Mirror _reference.

**reference to another sci-fi show. Do you know what it is? :)


	11. Chapter 10

**A/N: In a tearing hurry, but thank you all for reading and special thanks to those few who reviewed the last chapter! The nod to the other fandom in the last chapter, for those of you who didn't know, is from Doctor Who. :) **

Chapter Ten

_Captain's Log, supplement_

_We have ascertained that we are no longer in the known galaxy. Having answered a distress call in old Morse code from an unidentified planet, we found a race of strange, gaseous creatures, and one Earth girl, who claims to be from the twenty-first Earth century. The creatures were very insistent that we take the girl, named Kathryn Douglas, onboard, as their planet was dying. After being unable to beam up, due to the planet's atmosphere being disrupted, the landing party found themselves, and the girl inexplicably on the Bridge. So far, her story has been incredible, but Doctor McCoy has proven that she is indeed a girl from Earth._

Captain James T. Kirk was not an easily disturbed man. In fact, it took quite a bit to disturb him. _However_, Sulu reflected as he glanced at the closing turbolift doors, _the captain is completely rattled now! _He hastily got up; his shift was over for the day. _Thank heaven for small mercies!_

Chekov was much of the same opinion as he too relinquished his post to the beta-shift officer, Lieutenant Knipps. _Ze keptin looks like he is about to bang his head against the nearest wall! And Meester Spock looks like he ees going to..._He shrugged rapidly, deciding that he did _not _want to know what Spock looked like.

"Well, Pavel, shall we head down to the Mess?" Sulu inquired as they entered the turbolift. "I believe there will be some excitement today."

"Wit ze keptin and Meester Spock in such a state? It is as sure as snow in December in Moscow!" Chekov answered, grasping a support handle. "I do not vant to be around them when ze storm hits!"

TOS-TOS-TOS

"There you are, Jim," was the less-than-polite greeting of Doctor McCoy to Captain Kirk as Kirk and Spock paused by the table. "We've been having a great conversation here."

"Indeed we have, Captain, Mr. Spock," Kathryn added, putting down her spoon and rising.

Kirk waved Kathryn back into her seat. "Well, we'll join you in a minute, Kathryn, Bones. Just let us get our lunches."

_Well, I'll be darned. She gets all tight around Jim! _Bones thoughtfully sipped his water, studying Kathryn's pale face over the rim.

She either did not notice or decided to ignore it, because she went on eating her third bowl of soup without meeting his eyes. However, her shoulders were visibly more tensed than before, and her fingers began to drum on the bowl as she tilted it up to chase down the last drops of broth.

Soon, Kirk came back, him and Spock carrying trays of food. "How do you like replicated food, Kathryn?" he asked, trying to see if light talk would let her open up more.

"I think that almost anything would taste good to me right now, so I can't say. Just the sensations of eating are very nice after going two years without them," Kathryn answered with a semi-forced smile. "I am now wondering how in the world I went so long without eating."

_Now, why does she get all formal around Jim? Most girls melt in front of him by the second conversation, or try to seduce him! _McCoy thought.

By this time, Spock and Kirk had sat down and were beginning to eat.

"So, Kathryn, you were beginning to tell me about the hierarchy of the Esterants?" McCoy asked, trying to prevent another awkward silence.

She swallowed a mouthful of bread. "Yes. It was mostly family-based. Be'thul's family had always been the ruling family. They always had the last say in things, and all the girl's names started with Be. The boys' names started with Ji. Then came three other families, who were the...I guess aristocrats. They had certain prefixes showing their positions in the government. Everyone else was equal, and they had complete freedom over their own names. However, most families had a particular prefix just for them. It was like a last name. My Esterant name was more of a nickname than an actual name. Ra'nier means innocent child—I think I told you that—and it was generally applied to baby girl Esterants. You see, the parents did not name their children—when the kids got to a certain age, they named themselves."

"Well, I can see the advantages in such a system," McCoy commented, pushing his plate away. "No fighting over who rules and who doesn't, at any rate."

Kathryn popped the rest of her bread in her mouth and washed it down with her milk. When she had got her mouth clear, she answered, "Oh, there were flaws in it, but I think it generally worked."

"Kathryn, you mentioned that the Esterants could make anything if they had sufficient knowledge of it. Do you know how they did that?" Kirk asked her.

She shrugged. "All I know is that they could tweak matter into whatever they wanted, but they had to know what they wanted. For instance, I asked for a new story once, but they didn't know what went into a book, so all the pages were blank. Or when Be'thul tried to make me a new dress for the first time—she made it out of some radioactive material! It took trial and error to get her to actually make anything remotely resembling fabric. However, they got pretty good at it as time went on. If you'd let me show you my boxes, I think that would explain some of it."

Kirk finished off his sandwich and gulped down his coffee. Spock consumed the last of his soup, and arose from his seat.

"Captain. I suggest that we let Miss Kathryn show us the contents of her parcels. It should be most informative," he said.

Kathryn's eyes twinkled. "Mr. Spock, please do call me Kathryn," she said. "I don't care to be called Miss at every turn. I'm just plain Kathryn."

Spock quirked an eyebrow. "Most illogical," he stated calmly.

"I'm a human, teenaged girl. It would be illogical to suppose that I was logical," Kathryn answered, completely deadpan.

Spock's eyebrows arose to his bangs. McCoy snorted and grabbed the remained trays. "You deserved that, Spock," he tossed over his shoulder as he headed for the recycling unit.

"Well, Kathryn and gentlemen, shall we head down to the Transporter Room?" Kirk asked, a smile playing over his face.


	12. Chapter 11

**A/N: Thank you all for reading and reviewing. Please keep it up!**

Chapter Eleven

When Kirk walked into the Transporter Room, the first thing he noticed were the four parcels sitting in the corner. Scotty and another redshirted ensign snapped to attention.

"At ease, gentlemen. Mr. Erling, you may go now. Scotty, would you stay?" Kirk asked, striding up to the console.

Erling slipped out, almost bumping into Kathryn. "Excuse me, Miss," he stammered, ducking past McCoy and through the door.

Scotty smiled. "Hello lass. Come to have a look at yon parcels?" he asked, leaving the console.

"More like show them off to y'all," she answered with a smile. "I have a pretty good idea of what's in there, and I promise that there's nothing that will hurt the _Enterprise _in there that I know of. May I?"

She put her hand on the nearest of the parcels. It was a garment-bag of modest size, gray with a blue strap.

"Go ahead," Kirk told her.

She sat down on the floor, pulled the bag from its leaning position against the wall, and unzipped it.

TOS-TOS-TOS

Whatever Captain Kirk had been expecting from that bag, _this _had _not_ been it.

In the last twenty-eight minutes, Kathryn had pulled out of that impossible bag about thirty outfits from all time periods on Earth and some definitely _not _of Earth. Also, several shawls, capes and cloaks had also come out of that bag. They were now all over the Transporter Room, and McCoy was holding about ten of them.

_There can NOT be any more in that bag! _McCoy's mind yelped at the mere idea of more dresses coming out of there.

She squirreled her head in the bag, and came out with one last outfit—a Scottish, Highland dancing costume.

"Why they put this one at the bottom is beyond my comprehension," she complained, holding up the blouse/skirt ensemble, and dusting it off. "They knew it was my favorite!"

Scotty's eyes widened. "You can dance the Scottish dances?" he asked.

"Highland Fling, Sword dance, and some of the couple dances," she answered him. "I like the Highland Fling best. Though my brothers were better at it than I ever will be—them being boys and all. Father taught us."

Scotty shook his head. "Can ye show me sometime?" he asked.

"Of course I can! But I would need music—do you play the bagpipes?"

"Aye, lassie, that I do." A big smile spread all over Scotty's face. "I'd be prood to play for ye."

Kirk coughed. "Gentlemen, if we could hold this discussion someplace else?" he asked.

"Of course, Captain. Any questions about this?" Katheryn waved her hands at the clothes. "I would like to put them away, as they might wrinkle like this."

"Just one, really small thought, Kathryn. How did ya get all those clothes in that tiny bag?" McCoy was heavily sarcastic.

"It's bigger on the inside, of course," Kathryn answered, matter-of-factly, picking up two other Medieval dresses and laying them across her lap.

"Miss Kathryn, that is not a plausible explanation," Spock stated calmly.

She shrugged. "I can fit all these dresses back in, as I took them all out. Your eyes tell you that the bag is too small; the clothes tell you otherwise. It's some kind of alien technology that I don't really understand, but it's a huge help. Here, let me show you."

She laid the clothes back on the floor and stood up. "Now, see, the bag is smaller than myself," she pointed out, holding it up against her chest. It was about four feet long and two feet wide, Kirk estimated. "But, nevertheless, I can climb into it," she added, holding open the side, and stepping in, ducking slightly to fit.

The bag closed around her, showing no sign that anyone was in it at all, save the fact that it remained upright.

McCoy let a swear word rip from his mouth. Kirk stood there, nonplussed. Spock's eyebrows once again rose to his bangs.

"Fascinating," he commented.

Kathryn emerged from the bag. "Indeed it is, Mr. Spock," she said, her lips quirked into a strange smile. "Can I put my clothes away now?"

TOS-TOS-TOS

After another thirty-five point seven six minutes (as they were so helpfully informed by Mr. Spock, much to Doctor McCoy's disgust) all the clothes were put away, and the grey garment-bag was once more propped innocently in the corner.

Kathryn knelt down by the second parcel. This one was really a chest. It was dark brown, with heavy copper straps around it, and it had a curved top, just like pirate chests of old. A large, ornate keyhole was prominently displayed on the front.

"Would you like me to empty this one as well, Captain?" Kathryn asked, looking up from the chest.

Kirk sighed inwardly. _In for a penny, in for a pound, _he thought.

"Go ahead," he encouraged her.

She put her hand into the top of her dress, and drew out a heavy, tarnished key on a golden chain. This she inserted into the lock, and threw back the lid.

The first thing Spock noticed on the top of the box was an absurd pile of hats, scarves, and two jewel boxes, one very like his mother's. Kathryn took out the pile of hats first, placing them on the floor. "They're just hats," she said calmly. The scarves joined the hats shortly, one at a time.

_Now, I'm no expert in ladies' scarves, but that looks suspiciously like Jo Jo's treasured silk scarf! _McCoy thought as Kathryn folded a shimmering blue scarf.

After the scarves were all taken out and exhibited, Kathryn turned to the first jewel box. It was smaller than the other, and it was of the kind that you need to solve a puzzle to be able to open it. With a few deft motions, she maneuvered it open and held it out to Kirk.

"Scotty. Is this a dilithum crystal?" Kirk asked, picking up a necklace whose pendant was a single, pear-shaped, purple-white stone cut in curious facets.

Scotty took the necklace from his captain. "Aye, Captain, that they are. But how it was cut is beyond me!"

"There's a set of earrings to go with that, Captain," Kathryn said, picking out two more pieces and handing them to him. "I told the Esterants that purple wasn't really my color, but this was a present from Ti'lace."

"I canna understand it! No-one is able to cut dilithum that we know of," Scotty shook his head, marveling at the purple-white stones. "And this size of stone being gem quality?"

Kathryn shrugged. "I like the pear cut for necklaces and earrings, so Ti'lace designed it that way." She settled the box on her lap and selected a stack of bangle bracelets to slip onto her wrist. "I think they packed all my jewelry here. It'll take hours to look at it all properly!"

Kirk handed the earrings back to her. "I think we'll take your word for it that there's nothing harmful to the _Enterprise_ in there, Kathryn, though I believe you have enough in there to break several hearts aboard this ship," he smiled.

She smiled back. "It will save time," she agreed, setting the earrings back into place.

Scotty handed her the necklace, shaking his head. "What other surprising things have you got in store for us, lassie?" he asked.

"I can't rightly say, sir." Her eyes twinkled up at him. "We'll just have to find out!"

McCoy handed her the piles of scarves and hats. She placed them back into the tray alongside the jewel box, and lifted the tray out, revealing another tray filled with what Kirk presumed were hair combs, brushes and cosmetics. That tray also came out, letting the four males view piles of blouses, skirts and who knew what else.

_This is going to take a very, very long time, _McCoy reflected, unwanted memories of Jocelyn's closet and dresser drawers coming back to him.

_A/N: Could you please take a minute to review? Also, can you answer this question for me "If you had telepathic powers that enabled you to hear the thoughts about you, how would you envision shielding your mind from them?"_

_Thank you in advance! Until next time, Mary out._


	13. Chapter 12

**A/N: Here we go again! Thank you all for reading/reviewing. It means a lot to me. :) Hope you enjoy!**

**Happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there!**

Chapter Twelve.

By the time the second box was exhausted, Kirk was regretting that they had even ventured into it. _Who knew girls required so much STUFF?! _he thought crossly. _The Transporter Room is not a woman's clothing store!_

Scotty shook his head. _Having three sisters shoulda prepared me for some of this, _he reflected. _But even Bridget was na so bad! _

Spock's eyebrows seemed to have taken up temporary lodgings in his bangs.

McCoy was just thanking the stars that Jo Jo was _not _into clothes.

And Kathryn looked like she wanted to laugh, cry, or go into hysterics over the disarray.

However, she did none of the above, and began shoveling the mess back into the trunk as quickly as she could.

"Honestly, if I didn't know better, I'd say Ha'yit was at the bottom of this fiasco!" she sputtered quietly. "It's just up his alley!"

"If you don't mind me asking, Kathryn, that's the second time I've heard mention of this Ha'yit. Who was he?" McCoy asked, handing her a pile of old Earth petticoats.

She pushed back some unruly curls that had popped out of her braid. "A very irritating Esterant who didn't quite approve of me, but was too smart to say so. After he discovered what a 'prank' was, he made a point to play them on me until Be'thul interfered and stopped him. He would also tell me things the other Esterants wanted me not to know right then, then plead that he didn't quite understand what they meant."

She shoved a pile of heavy skirts into the trunk and topped that with a pile of sweaters. "But right now even his pranks would be appreciated," she murmured. She turned away, biting her lip.

McCoy dropped a hand onto her shoulder. _I'msorryhomesicksoemptyquietwhywhyWHY _trickled into his mind, and he involuntary jerked back.

Kathryn turned towards him. "Did I just send you a message?" she asked wearily. Tears were again pooling in her eyes, and she looked very tired all of a sudden.

Kirk only needed one look to see that McCoy had indeed received one and didn't quite know what to do about it. Scotty picked his way through the remaining piles, knelt down on her other side, and patted her shoulder reassuringly.

"Don't worry aboot it, lass. We'll get everything sorted oot in the end," he said kindly. "It's been a long day for everyone."

Kathryn gave him a teary smile, and turned back to her piles.

TOS-TOS-TOS

Fortunately for everyone, the third parcel contained simply a Terran Earth harp with twenty-four strings, extra harp strings, a tuning wrench, a strange tuning device, also of Earth, and an old Earth soprano recorder, which Kathryn called a flipple flute.

"These came with me, two years ago," she explained. "I enjoy both of them, but the harp is my favorite. The extra strings were made for me by...umm...I think Er'set. He really liked the harp."

She stroked the strings, making them hum.

None of that took a long time to put away, and then only one box was left. Kathryn tried to pull it closer to her, but it wouldn't budge. Scotty helped her.

"What have you got in this one, lass? Rocks?" he asked, only half teasing.

"I don't know! But it's probably books," she answered.

This box was also a chest, but of a darker, heaver wood, with no visible opening. It too had a curved top and heavy bands of a red metal ran around it. Kathryn lightly touched the top.

"I actually don't know how to open this one," she said. "Maybe it's..."

She didn't need to say anything else. The curved top silently slid back, revealing gently shimmering orbs of all colors. About twelve lay there on a bed of velvet.

"What are those?" Scotty asked, leaning in for a closer look.

Kathryn handed him a ruby red orb with flecks of brown and gold dancing in its depths. "I'm not quite sure myself! These are my...well...I've called them snow-globes, because that's the nearest Earth-thing they are like." She handed one to Kirk and McCoy, then brought one over to Spock. "Each one has a picture of something in it. They started out as an attempt to make me smile after I was rescued from the rogue Esterants." She stroked a vivid blue-green orb, and sat down by her box again. "They were Ti'yet's idea. He was Ti'lace's brother, and he remembered that she and I liked pretty rocks. So, he made that red one," she waved a hand towards the one Scotty held "for me, and I really liked it. It didn't take long for the others to catch on, and that's where these came from."

"Captain. The orb I am holding contains a high concentration of rare minerals that have apparently grown within each other," Spock commented, turning a light green orb in his hands. "They seem to form a picture of a Terran forest scene."

Kirk looked at the globe Kathryn had handed to him. It had two lifelike swans in it, floating on a picture of water.

"Well, these won't hurt the _Enterprise_" he commented, handing it back to Kathryn. The others followed suit, Spock handing his over last.

Kathryn put them back in place, and lifted out their tray. McCoy noticed she did not show them the box of modest size beside the orbs. _Did she just forget, or..._

"Wow..." Kirk couldn't help himself. Inside that box were stacks and stacks of books. Real, paper, bound-in-leather and cloth books. He could also see a large pile of paper and a binder that looked like something out of a history book.

Kathryn smiled. "You like reading?" she asked, stroking the blue-green globe that was still in her lap.

"The Captain certainly does!" McCoy beat him to it. "You have to literally pull him outta them sometimes!"

"It's the same with me," Kathryn said. "I can spend hours in a good book. Would you like to take a closer look, Captain?"

"That, ah, won't be necessary, Kathryn," Kirk answered, a tone of reluctance coloring his voice nonetheless. He would have dearly loved to see which books she had brought.

Suddenly, he realized that she had probably picked up on his thoughts, because she smiled as she closed the box. "Feel free to ask for any of my books, Captain. I'm sure you would like to read them. Who knows? Perhaps some of these have not been written in your world."

"Well, that's very generous of you, Kathryn. I most likely will take you up on that." He smiled at her. She blushed as Scotty helped her up, and did not meet his eyes.

Kirk turned to the comm. "Maintenance, this is the captain. Send Yeoman Barrows down here, along with a few strong men. We have a visitor to settle in VIP quarters. Captain out."

He turned back to Kathryn. "Yeoman Barrows will see you settled in a suite, with your things. She'll also show you around the rooms. Would you mind dining with me and Mr. Spock at 1800 hours?"

"That would be very nice, Captain. But how shall I know when it is time?" Kathryn asked.

"We'll come for you," he answered. _She really is quite a pretty girl._

The doors swished open, and five people in Security Red entered.

"Kathryn, this is Yeoman Tonia Barrows. Barrows, this is Kathryn Douglas. Take her down to the guest quarters and show her around. Jackson, you and your men take Kathryn's parcels down to her room," Kirk directed.

"Aye, aye, sir. This way, Ms. Douglas," Tonia answered.

Kathryn walked towards the door, but paused and turned back. "Thank you, Captain, Doctor, Mr. Spock and Scotty for putting up with all that." Her eyes twinkled again. "I look forward to talking with you again."

She stepped through the doors, followed by a puzzled Barrows.

_A/N: Review, review, review! Pleeeeaaase? *sad puppy eyes*_

_Until next time! :)_


	14. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen.

Tonia Barrows was confused.

Kathryn Douglas seemed like a nice, ordinary, teenage girl. But...she was completely clueless about the simplest things! Really, she didn't even know how to run the sonic shower or how to set the environment controls!

And where did she come from, anyway? Scuttlebutt was running rampant about her, but nothing seemed solid.

_That's the trouble with being a yeoman—no one ever TELLS me anything! _she thought in exasperation as she trotted down the corridor to the Mess for an early dinner.

_And...I still have those fuel reports to fill out for Scotty, _she reflected woefully as she entered the Mess. "_A man works from sun to sun, but a WOMAN'S work is never done!"_

Feeling very sorry for herself, she made her way to the food replicator.

TOS-TOS-TOS

In a stopped turbolift, a heated discussion was going on between McCoy and Kirk.

"Jim, I'm telling you, that's all I know! Some about her family, some about her telepathic powers, _nothing _except what she has freely told or shown me! Now, I want you to calm down before we go on!" McCoy insisted after Kirk asked him for the fourth time about Kathryn.

"We need to know more about her, Bones, and you're the only one she's really opened up towards!" Kirk shot back. "We still don't know enough about her! Remember Khan and that whole mess?"

McCoy started to say something, then stopped and considered. "This isn't about Kathryn, is it, Jim? This is about not knowing where we are," he said more gently.

Kirk ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know, Bones! Spock is hiding in his Science Labs, Scotty is wigged out over some Engineering problem that I don't remember, Uhura can't even send a subspace squirt back to the Admiralty, only heaven knows why, and to top it all off, Lieutenant Fauna of stellar cartography is freaking out over the sheer amount of new stars found here!" He began to cough again, doubling over with the pain.

"Aw, Jim. And I know we were all due for a leave before this mess started." Bones shook his head.

"I know, right?" Kirk slammed his fist against the wall. "It just never stops!"

McCoy blew out a breath. _This is so _**not**_ the time to tell him that crew efficiency is down five percent and that five people are in Sickbay with allergic reactions from that new plant in Botany, is it?_

Suddenly, the turbolift started moving again. Kirk jumped, and swore, using several choice Andorian words. McCoy looked at the opening door through a very tired yawn.

There stood Spock.

"Captain, Doctor, I suggest that we now invite Miss Kathryn to join us for dinner, as it is precisely five point three minutes before the time you specified," he announced calmly.

"All right, Spock. Come on, Bones." Kirk stepped out of the turbolift, took a deep breath, and set off down the hall.

Spock and McCoy exchanged looks, then silently followed their captain.

The guest quarters weren't far from the turbolift, and soon they were all in front of the door. Kirk pushed the buzzer.

"Come in!" The doors slid open and Kirk took a few steps into a pitch black room.

"Kathryn?"

"Right here, sir," she answered, coming out of the darkness.

She evidently had changed, for when she stepped out of the room with Kirk, McCoy noticed that she was wearing a gray skirt and a puffy blue blouse.

"This way, Kathryn," Kirk said, offering her his arm.

Her eyebrows went up as she accepted it with a smile.

"So, Kathryn, from what part of Earth did you come from?" he asked her as they walked down to the lift.

"Upper Wisconsin, Captain. My family owned a homestead there—about fifty acres of land that had been in the family for some time," she answered. "With a farm and eight children on her hands, my mother had quite a time!"

"Your family were farmers?" McCoy asked.

"Only partly. My father is a professor in general literature and some branch of math. He teaches those subjects over the Internet, so he's at home most of the time."

They entered the turbolift. "Eight siblings? Are you the oldest?" McCoy asked.

"No, I'm the second oldest. My brother Tom and I are twins; he came first. Then, we have Robert, Martin, Mariah, Kenneth, Julia, and Fiona, the baby. I don't really know what ages they are now, though," Kathryn answered, fiddling with the ribbons at her throat. "Martin and Mariah are twins as well."

They stepped out of the turbolift. "Well, Kathryn, while I do wish we had met under different circumstances, we are happy to have you on board the _Enterprise._" Kirk smiled at her. "After we eat, would you like a tour of the ship?"

Spock stiffened, and looked like he was about to say something. Kathryn beat him to it. "I would love it, Captain, but aren't you worried about the possibility of me figuring out too much in this time?"

Kirk mentally kicked himself. _Idiot!_

"You are very perceptive, Miss Kathryn," Spock commented.

Kathryn looked at him sideways. "Not hard when you can't help hearing others' thoughts."

_Annnd...there she reminds us again, _McCoy thought. Frankly, it was downright disturbing that Kathryn had such a power, and even more disturbing was the fact that apparently, she couldn't rein it in.

There were quite a few other people in the Mess at that time, and as they walked through the door, Spock could feel the curiosity bouncing off his mental shields. Kathryn bit her lip again, and McCoy was less than pleased about being stared at like some freak show.

Kirk smiled and waved his free hand. "At ease, all," he said cheerfully.

"Aye, aye sir," "Yes sir," "Of course, sir" came back to him.

They made their way to an empty table near the back of the room. "What would you like to eat, Kathryn?" Kirk asked her.

She did not respond. "Kathryn?" McCoy tapped her shoulder.

"Oh! Sorry. I did answer you, but in Esterant style—opening a door in my mind," Kathryn explained. "Could I please have...umm...a ham and Swiss cheese sandwich with milk?"

"Spock, would you and Bones get the food?" Kirk murmured.

"Affirmative, captain. Doctor, I believe a discussion of the choices on the Captain's meal card is in order," Spock raised his voice.

"Wha?" McCoy caught Kirk's eye. "Now that's one of the few sensible things you've said today," he accused Spock.

Kathryn smiled as she watched the two bicker all the way to the replicator. Kirk noticed this, and became thoughtful.

"Kathryn, may I speak freely to you?" he asked quietly.

She turned towards him, remains of the smile flickering through her eyes. "Of course, Captain. But I may not be able to answer."

"You seem to be...familiar with this ship and its technology, yet you claim to be from the twenty-first century, where this has not happened yet. Why is that?"

"Captain, I do not believe I am from your Earth's past." Kathryn's eyes darkened. "I believe I am from another universe."

"That still does not explain why you seem familiar with Doctor McCoy, and unfazed by Mr. Spock." Kirk tapped his foot, positive she was keeping something back.

"_One step closer*," _Kathryn hummed quietly.

She looked straight at him, but couldn't hold it, and dropped her eyes. "Very well, Captain. You leave me little choice."

"I am indeed from another universe, one in which your adventures are detailed in a television show, which I have watched since I was little. Because of that show, I believe I know some of your past, and some of your future, thus putting me in...shall we say...an awkward situation?"

_*A Thousand Years_


	15. Chapter 14

_A/N: Dear everyone, I'm sorry to say this, but I will have to stop updating twice a week, due to an intense fight with allergies and Latin. I will still post once a week, on Sundays, until further notice._

_Thank you all for the views and reviews. Y'all are awesome!_

_Now, on with the chapter! :)_

Chapter Fourteen

_Captain's log, second day of unknown stardates._

_After much extensive research, Mr. Spock has decided that our best chance of escaping this universe and getting back to our own is to find another wormhole, similar to the one that brought us here. The Science Departments are now scanning the arenas about us for signs of another wormhole._

_Our unexpected guest, Ms. Kathryn Douglas, is currently staying onboard under light surveillance. She has claimed to come from another universe into the one we currently inhabit by means of a temporal disturbance. I have no reason to believe that this is false, save for the fact that it sounds implausible; however, in the interest of the _Enterprise_'s safety, we have decided to keep an eye on her._

_There has been a slight issue with three of the seven food replicators; however, Mr. Scott, Chief Engineer seems to have it well under control._

Kirk shut the recording off and sighed, leaning back in his chair on the Bridge. Nothing was going on, except the scans for wormholes. There hadn't been anything interesting on the screens at all since the day before, and he was very tired. He had been up during the night, coughing, and there were way too many problems on his plate for him to concentrate on an empty viewscreen.

His mind began to wander. The fact that no-one knew where they were was easily the biggest of all his headaches right now. _We're doing all we can, _he thought gloomily _but it isn't enough. If Spock can't get us outta here, we're toast._

Another headache just waiting to happen was that that 'slight' issue with the food replicators was rather worse than his log entry had stated. Those replicators were completely worn out. Scotty was trying, but Kirk didn't think even he could manage it. And of course, they had to be the coffee making replicators, (the other four didn't make anything near good coffee, even for replicated stuff) and as most of the ship's crew _ran _on coffee, the situation was pretty bad. Fortunately, his own personal drink replicator was still online, but that wasn't helpful for the crew.

He shut his eyes. The third, and biggest of all headache was Kathryn. He had a Security man showing her around and another keeping an eye on her, but he had a feeling she knew about them. _Of course she does, you idiot, she's telepathic and she knows our future! And she probably can hear every thought on this ship!_

Part of his mind told him that he was overreacting, and that Kathryn more than likely didn't want to hear what she could, but he did not like telepathic beings (Spock was the exception) as a rule, and a telepath who couldn't control her mind? _It's the equivalent of a loose cannon. _

And he still couldn't quite believe she knew their future, but somehow, he didn't want to push that. He _had _asked her if she could prove it, and all she had said (before Spock and Bones had come back and awkward conversation had commenced) was "Captain, can you prove to an isolated and rising civilization that sometime in their future, they will fly among the stars, when now they only have horses?"

He jerked himself back to reality, and clicked his comm button. "Kirk to Spock. Any results?"

"Negative, Captain. I have assigned all Science Labs to work on this problem."

"Very well. Kirk out."

He threw another cursory glance at the viewscreen, wishing he knew what Kathryn was up to. It was going to be a very, very long shift.

TOS-TOS-TOS

"And, to round it out, here's the Sickbay slash Medbay. You've met Doctor McCoy?" Ensign Lamere asked.

"Yes...yesterday. He was in the landing party," Kathryn answered, smoothing back her hair.

They entered Sickbay. Not much was going on at that time, and Doctor McCoy bustled over to them.

"Hullo Kathryn, Miles. Come to have a look around?" he asked with a smile.

Miles Lamere nodded. "Yessir!" McCoy had always intimidated him, ever since he had accidentally spilled engine coolant over himself and three other Engineering personnel. _That had __**not**__ been a good day._

Kathryn, however, smiled up at him. "This was our last stop. Miles showed me the gardens, the observing room, the rec rooms, and the dining hall. I really liked the gardens. We didn't have anything like that at Yi'lath'a."

McCoy chuckled at Kathryn's labels. "What do you mean by Yi'lath'a? Some place on that planet?" he asked.

"My Esterant home. I forgot I didn't tell you," she explained.

Suddenly, Scotty burst into Sickbay. "Miles! Thank heeven you're here, lad. We need you back in Engineering—the dilithum crystals are fluctuating wildly, and I need your expertise!"

"Sir, with all due respect, the Captain—"

"Laddie! I'll settle it with him—the lass should be fine in here for now. Come along!"

Scotty turned and hurried out the door. Miles looked at Kathryn. "I'm sorry, Miss," he said.

"It's fine. Go on—perhaps I'll see you at lunch," she answered.

He hurried out, glad to get out of Sickbay. McCoy chuckled again. He was well aware of Miles Lamere's fear of him.

"Well, Kathryn, I've got some paperwork to finish up, but then I'll be free. Do you mind..."

"Waiting a bit? No, I don't." She finished the sentence for him.

"Thanks!" McCoy ducked back into his office.

TOS-TOS-TOS

Nurse Chapel was just congratulating herself on finally getting to her third hour on shift without anything at all happening (a rare treat, and one which enabled her to get caught up on three weeks' worth backed up paperwork) when the Mann twins in Science blue stumbled through the door, the man holding his gasping sister up.

"Jade, Jasper. What is it this time?" she asked, trying to contain her irritation as she grabbed a tricorder. These two were always ending up in Sickbay, at least once a week.

"It's Jade, Nurse. She's had some kind of allergic reaction to that new alien plant we brought back from Lenata," Jasper filled in.

"Lenata? You mean Lena Five?" Chapel asked, completing her scan.

"If that's the one that looks just like Earth clover, yes. I'm a bit short of breath as well, Nurse."

Chapel reached for a hypospray and fixed the dose of the anti-histamine. "There," she said, pressing it into Jade's neck. "That should tie you over. You're next, Jasper."

Jade took a deep breath. "Thanks, Nurse Chapel. That's much better."

"I will _never _understand why you didn't take my suggestion and go into Command or Ops, J!" Jasper growled as the hypo hissed against his neck.

"Because I didn't fancy them, and you were too protective to _not _come with me, Jappy!" Jade answered.

Chapel smiled. This was an old, old argument that she had heard many times before.

McCoy strolled out of his office, a big smile on his face. "No physicals for the next month, going through a quiet part of space, and a quiet day in the office. How much better does it get?"

"Well, the terrible two could stay out of Sickbay for a week, at least," Chapel answered dryly.

Jade blushed. "Thanks, Nurse!" she called over her shoulder, pulling Jasper out with her.

"Chapel, seen our guest around here?" McCoy asked as the door hissed shut.

"No sir. I wasn't aware that she was in Sickbay." Chapel's ears perked up. _I would like to give that girl a ESP test sometime..._

"Odd. She said that she'd stay put." McCoy looked around.

Katheryn was no-where in sight.


	16. Chapter 15

_A/N: A HUGE thank you to PSW and copperdragon 2 for reviewing my last chapter! Here we go again..._

Chapter Fifteen

Generally, the Mess was crowded after alpha shift* let out. Most of the people on alpha shift were more than ready for a meal after their shift, and for some reason, many people on Delta shift ate dinner at this time as well.

Kirk liked this. It enabled him to interact with his crew on a daily basis—checking in on homesick Ensigns, reassuring nervous newbies, observing the general mood of the ship, and so on. But today—!

He sneezed crossly and mopped his nose with a handkerchief as he entered the turbolift. That stupid plant in Botany—the one that looked like clover—was driving him crazy with hay fever. _At least that cough is over, _he reflected, sneezing again as Spock, Uhura, Pavel, and Sulu joined him.

Spock looked at him sideways, then commanded the turbolift to take them to Deck Fifteen. The others wisely held their peace, Sulu pinching Pavel to keep him quiet.

TOS-TOS-TOS

Doctor McCoy walked along the hall quietly, thinking hard.

Kathryn had been rather quiet that morning, more so than last night, and he didn't know why that was. She seemed to be scared of something—and that disappearance in Sickbay had definitely upset that Security man who was tracking her! _Never mind that she just had to use the bathroom!_

However, he had a pretty good guess that it all had to do with that private talk Kirk had had with her when he and Spock were getting dinner.

_She looked frazzled after that, and Jim—! Wonder what they said? Wonder what's eattin her? _

He turned the corner and entered the Mess.

The first thing he saw was Scotty and Kathryn sitting at a side table together, with cups in front of them. Kathryn was laughing and Scotty looked like he was having a good time.

"..and then, he decided that wearing the kilt wasn't enough, and he took down Father's bagpipes from the wall—he stood on the dresser to do it—but he fell off the dresser, and landed on the bag of the bagpipes, and there was an awful hoot, and that's when Mamsie found him, all tangled up in the pipes!" Kathryn giggled and snorted into her cup.

Scotty chuckled. "Did the wee laddie hurt himself at all?" he asked.

"Oh, no, but the bag was never quite the same again. Father had to get it replaced."

McCoy thought that this was a good time to insert himself into the conversation. "Mind if I join y'all?" he asked, walking up to them.

"Not at all, Doctor" "Sit by, Doctor," they responded.

"The lass was just telling me about her wee brother Martin," Scotty explained.

Kathryn looked up and something shifted in her eyes. _He does not know yet, does he?_

"How old is he?" McCoy asked, sitting down. _Now, what's changed with her? Her eyes keep shifting..._

"He was twelve when I left home." Kathryn bit her fingernail. "I think he and Mariah should be fourteen by now. Mariah's his twin," she explained to Scotty.

Before anything else could be said, the door opened and Kirk came through, his face professionally arranged in a tight mask that hid nothing from McCoy.

_Uh oh, someone's not happy, _he thought.

Scotty shook his head. _I hope they leave the puir girl alone. _

What Kathryn was thinking was anyone's guess.

TOS-TOS-TOS

Kirk did _not _want to talk to Kathryn; he wanted silence, coffee, Spock, and Bones in that precise order. And absolutely _nothing _else.

However, he was not quite sure how to achieve that goal as she had seen him come in, and Bones seemed to be talking with her and Scotty. Besides, he knew Spock wasn't coming to lunch—the science labs were taking up all his off-duty time.

_Anyway, I can still have the coffee._

Ignoring everyone, he made a beeline to the nearest replicator and slipped in the chip for coffee. As always, the cup came out almost instantaneously. He grabbed it, took a big sip—

—and promptly choked, spilling the rest of the murky brown liquid all over his front.

Several crewmen's ears perked up at the fluent Andorian/Klingon curses flying through the air. Two yeomen turned pink. Scotty's eyes widened, and Kathryn looked very interested.

McCoy hurried over to Kirk, trying not to laugh. "That replicator doesn't work for coffee, Jim," he said unnecessarily.

"I know that, Bones!" Kirk ground out, tossing the cup into the recycling container. He cursed three more times in some language that even McCoy didn't know.

"What were those in?" he asked.

"Ancient High Vulcan. And _don't _ask me how I found them out." Kirk pulled his shirt off, disregarding the stares almost every female in the room were giving him. He looked at it, decided it wasn't worth the trouble of taking it back to his room, and threw it after the cup.

"Um, Jim, I think we should take this someplace else," McCoy said, noticing the states. He followed that up with a push towards the door.

"All right, all right! At least that'll get me away from Kathryn..." Kirk mumbled.

_Unfortunately, I think both Scotty and Kathryn heard that, _reflected McCoy crossly as he shoved one mopey-slash-irritated Starfleet captain down the hall.

_*My explanation for the shifts onboard the Enterprise (done in normal time—military is a bit beyond me)_

_Alpha: 9 AM to 3 PM_

_Beta: 3 PM to 9 PM_

_Delta: 9 PM to 3 AM (nasty!)_

_Gamma: 3 AM to 9 AM (really nasty!)_

_Then, each person had two more hours of paperwork/overtime/continuing education/you get the picture to round out the workday. Meals went this way: Breakfast before shift, big lunch after shift, (or short nap, then lunch, depending) and dinner after paperwork/gym/entertainment _

_Please note that this is TOS-era-Enterprise, **not **TNG! TNG-Enterprise has a three-shift rotation (mostly (not always (see Chain of Command Part One (am four deep in brackets now, so must stop!))))_

**A/N: Please, please, review!**


	17. Chapter 16

**A/N: A huge thank you goes out to my reviewers: copperdragon 2, PSW, ****klycmer, and Solo2863. Thank you all so much!**

**Please read and review! I hope you enjoy...**

Chapter Sixteen

_Personal Log of Lenonard McCoy, Stardate: Sixth Day of Unknowns_

_Kathryn continues to do well here. She keeps mostly to herself, but she enjoys hanging out with Scotty, Pavel, and Uhura. I think Jasper and Jade Mann from Botany also like being around her. She's got a little routine going on with them; she eats breakfast with Scotty and Pavel, spends the mornings in the conservatory, Observation Deck, or Sickbay, (generally with a book or her harp; she likes to play music) eats lunch with Jasper and Jade, (sometimes Uhura), takes exercise classes with Uhura in the afternoon, then spends until dinner in her room. She seems to like talking with everyone, but she doesn't really volunteer information about her life._

_Jim is _living _on stimulants and painkillers! Just yesterday, he weaseled three weeks' worth of BOTH of them out of my Medbay without as much as a 'by-your-leave'. He's gonna kill himself!_

_The hobgoblin is also gonna kill himself. He hasn't eaten ANYTHING for the past five days! He is also driving his Science crews crazy. I've had thirty people show up in Sickbay asking for headache meds, sleeping pills, and anti-depressants over the last five days!_

McCoy switched off the recording and sighed. He was exhausted and very, very cross with Kirk, even though it was only eleven hundred hours.

He tilted his chair back and put his feet up on his cluttered desk. _No one 'll mind if I take a break now, _he thought, shutting his eyes.

The sounds of Kathryn's harp trickled through his door, followed by her voice. _"By yon bonnie banks, and by yon bonnie braes, where the sun shines so bright on Loch Lommond..."_

McCoy sighed peacefully, feeling the tension trickle out of him. Kathryn sometimes came to Sickbay to sing for the few patients that were bedridden, and she always brought her little harp after the first day.

_If only all my problems could be solved so easily, _he thought sleepily.

TOS-TOS-TOS

On the Bridge, things were nowhere _near _as peaceful. The reason for this was threefold, Sulu decided. He began to comply a list of reasons why the Bridge was so tense, starting with the smallest.

Number One: Captain Kirk was in a state. He was fidgety, he was jumpy, and he was on his fifth cup of coffee. All of which does not a good captain make.

Number Two: Mr. Spock was not on the Bridge, and his substitute was making a sad hash out of his station.

Number Three: _It's the sixth day of not knowing where we are!_

And there wasn't anything Sulu could do about it.

Pavel was drumming out a new piece of music on his console. You could hear him all over the Bridge. Sulu kicked him discretely, figuring that he could at least remove that annoyance for everyone's sake.

Unfortunately, the word 'discrete' was not in Pavel's vocabulary. He turned and hissed, "Vhat vas that for?"

Sulu heard Kirk shifting around behind him, and all at once became painfully aware of the proximity of the captain's chair to his station.

"Pavel, stop drumming!" he implored, staring at the viewscreen.

Pavel opened his mouth like he wanted to say something else, but just then, Kirk spun his chair around towards them. They both jumped.

"Is something wrong, gentlemen?" he asked icily.

"NO sir!" Sulu sang out, his mind chanting, _go away, go away, look down, look down_.

Pavel looked mutinous, but answered, "No, keptin."

"Good."

Sulu felt like slamming his or Pavel's head into something. Uhura looked at him with a sympathetic smile as if to say _I know how you feel._

It was going to be another of 'those' days.

TOS-TOS-TOS

Ensign Jade Mann walked into the Mess with a book under her arm. She scanned the room, smiling as she spotted her brother and Kathryn sitting at one of the side tables. As if on cue, Kathryn made eye contact with her, smiled and waved a hand.

"J, come on over!" her brother called.

"But get something to eat first!" Kathryn's voice rang out.

Eyebrows went up all over the room. Kathryn had never before spoken loudly; when she did speak, it was usually barely above a whisper.

Jade smirked as she waved an acknowledgment and walked over to one of the functioning replicators. She had been hoping to break through the girl's quiet shell, as she suspected that Kathryn was quite the talker once upon a time.

When she had gotten her food, she turned and snapped to attention. The captain had just walked in, alone, and he did _not _look happy.

_I pity the poor fool who gets caught in _that _thunderstorm, _she thought wryly as a hush settled over the normally buzzy room.

_A/N: Please review! And please check out the poll on my profile; there's a very important (for this story, anyway) question on it!_

_Thanks for reading!_


	18. Chapter 17

_A/N: Dear everyone,_

_Sorry for the hiatus! I really have no excuse except that my muses packed their bags and left. I will do my best to tell you if something like that happens again. Thank you all for the reviews! (You know who I'm talking to...)_

_Please check out the poll on my profile! I really need your opions..._

_On with the story!_

Chapter Seventeen

By the eighth day of unknown Stardates, there was a (highly secret and never-to-be-mentioned-to-anyone-above-the-rank-of-ensign) betting pool concerning which commanding officer, Kirk or Spock, would break first, with the majority favoring Kirk over Spock. The only commanding officer that knew about it was Scotty, but he turned a blind eye and went back to the ship's fried sensors.

For Spock had worn them out. All of them. And he had done a _very _through job of it.

Needless to say, Engineering was not thrilled with the extra workload. Command empathized, but added that they weren't the only ones pulling extra duty. Science told them that it was about time someone else got some additional work as well. Medical told them all to quit griping. Maintenance was smugly resting, and a wave of grumbling washed over the lower decks.

McCoy swore a blue streak and carried on, handing out stress relievers, headache medication, and stimulants.

Chapel was up to her ears with emotional female crew members in need of coffee and chocolate.

Uhura threw her back out in the gym and was laid up for a day, which added to the stress of the Bridge.

Pavel and Sulu avoided Kirk and Spock like the plague.

And Kathryn moved through it all like a being from another world in another time.

Which perhaps she was.

TOS-TOS-TOS

"What? You mean _The Scarlet Pimpernel _and _The Lord of the Rings _weren't written in your world either?" an outraged voice exclaimed. "Or _The Hobbit_?! Well, you need to read them _now! _And you didn't ever read Jules Verne?!_"_

"Hold on! I've been working through _Les Miserables _and you know I like it and Jade does too! She routinely steals the copy from my room now, and she keeps hinting about the parts I haven't read. One can only read so fast!" a masculine voice answered.

By a simple process of deductive logic, a certain Vulcan was able to ascertain that Miss Kathryn and Ensign Jasper Mann were the owners of the voices. He turned the corner and found the two of them walking down the hall away from him, still chatting.

"Well, where did you get to in _Les Miserables_?" Kathryn asked, juggling a satchel, two PADDs, and her harp case.

Jasper caught the PADDs as they slipped from her hand. "Let me take these. I've gotten to the part where Valjean picks up Cosette."

"And where's Jade?"

"On the barricades of Paris, evidently. You should ask her, not me!"

Spock raised an eyebrow, decided that it wasn't worth the effort, and efficiently strode down the hall to catch up with Ensign Mann.

He had come within a few steps of the two, when Kathryn whirled around. Jasper looked over his shoulder, wondering what had upset her.

"Kathryn? Mr Spock, sir!"

"At ease, Ensign," Spock responded. "Miss Kathryn, may I ask you a question?"

Kathryn looked very much like she wanted to plant her fists on her hips, Jasper thought (it was a gesture used when she was frighted or cross, he had discovered,) but her hands were too full. She settled for tossing the long braid of her hair over her arm.

"Of course."

Spock cut to the chase. "How did you know I was coming up behind you? Ensign Mann did not notice."

"Well, I, ah—oh, crap! Heavens above!" A heavy pin fell out of her braid. As she tried to catch it, the satchel slipped off her arm and the harp case waved dangerously.

Jasper laughed. "Here, Kathryn. Your pin and bag." He handed the items back to her.

"Thanks, Jasper. Would you—never mind, I've got it!"

Somehow, in front of a bemused Spock and an amused Jasper, she balanced the harp and satchel in one arm, fixed the pin with her left hand, and plucked the PADDs back from Jasper with her free hand within an Earth minute.

"Okay, all serene now!"

She turned to Spock. "I knew someone was there because I pick up on..." she fumbled for words "a certain feeling I get when—no, that's not the way to say it—oh! Everyone has a certain...aura...around them of thoughts and feelings. I can sense that cloud. You scared me because you were right behind me before I sensed you, and, although you felt familiar, I couldn't pin down who you were. In my experience, that's generally not good."

"Fascinating. Can you discover the identity of the person from the aura you sense?" Spock asked.

"In general—yes, if I know them already. However, in your case, you had mental shields up. They were effectively blocking your identity from me, but they couldn't conceal your presence."

Spock considered. "Miss Kathryn, would you be open to the possibility of exploring your mental powers with me? I believe that as a fellow telepathic being, I would be more suited than another human, and it should prove most intriguing for both of us, as well as helpful for you."

Kathryn cocked her head to one side. "Can I think about this some before saying yes or no?"

"Of course. Now, if I may have a word with you, Ensign?"

Jasper hesitated. He and Kathryn had been heading towards the gardens onboard, and he didn't want to hang about with anyone, least of all Mr. Spock, but he knew an order when he heard one. And this was definitely an order.

Kathryn must have picked up on his thoughts, for she smiled, said, "I'll see you both later, then," and trotted down the hall, humming lightly.

"Sir. What is it?" Jasper asked in a professionally toned voice.

"The Captain has called together a meeting in the Briefing Room of all persons who have become acquainted with Miss Kathryn. He wants you to be there."

"Why was I not notified of this over the intercom?" Jasper asked.

"The Captain does not want Miss Kathryn to know about this meeting." Spock answered. He began walking to the turbolift.

Jasper followed, thinking _I'm really sorry, Kathryn._

**A/N Review...please?**


	19. Chapter 18

_A/N: A shout-out to my reviewers klycmep, copperdragon2 (thank you especially for sticking with this story, copperdragon!) PSW (your constant reviews mean a LOT) and LauraCynitha (welcome back!) THANK YOU SO MUCH!_

_I hope you all enjoy this, and PLEASE vote on my profile's poll!_

Chapter Eighteen

Doctor McCoy felt like banging Jim and Spock's heads together until they regained the small amount of sense they had had at the start.

_They didn't have much ta start with, and it is all gone! I swear, they make each other worse!_

He slumped further down in his seat, rubbing at his eyes. _I could really use a nap and some relaxing time now, with Kathryn's music on the side._

Pavel was drumming, he noted absentmindedly. And he was being very loud in the quiet room. Sulu and Uhura were shooting pointed looks at him, but Pavel was having none of it. It was just as well the Captain and Spock not in the room yet—they were trying to find the Mann twins.

He yawned like a puppy and looked around. Scotty was sitting on the edge of his chair, with a worried face on that made McCoy smile. _What is it about Kathryn that she's got him and me wrapped 'round her finger?_

Nurse Chapel, PADD on her lap, was working away like she was still on duty. _I should get her off of that..._he thought, but he was too tired to bother.

Finally, the door opened, letting Kirk, Spock and the Mann twins into the room. Jasper looked stormy and his hair looked like he had been paying special attention to the unruly curls. Jade had a book under her arm and she was not in uniform. Kirk looked like an army of diplomats were about to descend on him, and Spock looked—like Spock.

_Surprise, surprise _thought McCoy ironically.

TOS-TOS-TOS

After everyone had sat down, Kirk stood up.

"I know you are all wondering why I have called this meeting," he began, pacing around the room. "Basically, I want us all to share what we know about Miss Kathryn so that we can all understand her better. You all have some sort of relationship with her, and hopefully, we can all deepen those relationships by learning more about her."

He stopped at his place around the table. "Dr. McCoy, we'll start with you. What have you learned about Kathryn?"

"Wall, she's a very talented young woman. Plays the harp very well and has a mine of int'resting stories to entertain almost anyone with. She has a great bedside manner with my people in Sickbay, and is almost always up for a chat. Sings amazingly, and has great taste in clothes, even though she wears some strange stuff. Hates math in any form, or so she's told me. Doesn't like technology very much. Says she's got no interest in machinery beyond making life easier for everyone."

Here McCoy paused. "Anything else, Doctor?" Kirk asked crisply.

"Waaal...she's homesick," McCoy added.

"And?"

"That's all I'm gonna tell you now. Some stuff she said to me was confidential." McCoy folded his arms. "I don't wanna break that 'less I have to."

Kirk looked like he wanted to argue, but he refrained from doing so. "Ensign Mann?" he asked, looking at Jasper.

Jasper coughed and tried not to look embarrassed. "Ahem! Kathryn Douglas is a very pretty girl. She likes flowers to look at, but has no interest in genetics beyond the basics. She's not really into science at all—her excuse/reason is that it makes her head swim. Ummm...she's read a lot, and we, with my sister—"

"Only sometimes," put in Jade wickedly.

"-discuss literature, flowers—alien and otherwise, and she's shared stories about her life in the 21st century. I've returned the favor, with stories about Jade's and my childhood. She's very agreeable. Sir!"

"What sort of stories, Ensign?"

"I have told her about the time Jade used the home food replicator to make fifty-seven cups of hot cocoa and the time I...enhanced...my father's flyer so that the accelerator was the break and vice versa. Stories like that, sir."

Eyebrows went up and smiles blossomed all over the room and Scotty looked at Jasper with an interested expression. McCoy looked at Jade. "Fifty-seven?" he mouthed.

Jade smirked.

Kirk smiled. "Thank you, Ensign. Ensign—" he paused. "Ms Mann?"

Jade pushed her chair back. "Sir! Kathryn is a very sweet girl, although somewhat young for her age. She sings all the time when not doing something else, and likes to dance. We also discuss literature, and she is very free with the books she brought with her. Knows quite a lot about Old and Ancient Earth History, but she calls it Modern and Middle Age history. If you talk about anything scientific, you'll loose her attention within five minutes. She always returns to her room at about seventeen hundred hours and stays there until dinner at eighteen or nineteen hundred hours, and she never talks about that time."

"Thank you, Ms. Mann. Mr. Chekov?"

"Vell, she is werry pretty. She's part Russian too! We talk about Russia and wodka and...vell...just stuff in general at lunch. She's werry nice," he added with a shrug.

Kirk sighed. "_Thank_ you Mr. Chekov. Mr. Sulu?"

Sulu stood up. "Sir! I don't see much of Miss Kathryn at all. When I do run into her, it's at lunchtime or in the conservatory. She always says hello, but that's about it. Sorry, sir!"

"No worries, Mr. Sulu. Mr. Scott?"

Scotty looked up at Kirk with a worried face. "Well, sir, like the others have said, she's a bonny lassie. We see each other at lunchtime, mostly. She loves the auld country, and we talk a lot aboot her."

"The...old country, Mr. Scott? Earth?"

"Scotland, sir. We have plans ta dance a few Scottish dances soon, and she sings the auld songs like she's just come from there."

"Thank you, Mr. Scott. Lieutenant Uhura?"

Uhura smiled. "She sings very well, sir. We meet in the Observation Lounge most days to sing duets. She has a very good range. Sometimes, she comes down to the gym, but she's not physically strong. Her little harp is quite beautiful, and we've shared many songs."

"Thank you, Lieutenant. Nurse Chapel?"

"My relationship with her is much the same as Mr. Sulu's, sir. We say hello, but that's about it."

Kirk nodded and clapped his hands. "Thank you everyone, for your time. This meeting was very helpful. Doctor McCoy, Mr. Spock, would you stay for a little while longer?"

"Of course, Jim." "Yes, Captain."

The room emptied out fairly quickly. Jasper was the first out the door, but no one was slow.

As the door closed behind Scotty, the last one to leave, McCoy turned to Kirk.

"Alright, Jim, spill. Why did you really call this meeting?"

* * *

**A/N: Dun, dun, dun...! New reviewers get a preview of the next chapters to come...on Wednesday...**

**Thank you all so much!**


	20. Chapter 19

**A/N: Here we go again! In response to a reviewer's question, the meeting in the last chapter took place at about 1630 hours. **

**Thank you all for reading and reviewing.**

* * *

Kirk sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "You're not going to like the answer, Bones," he said wearily.

"That doesn't mean I don't wanna hear it!" McCoy snapped. "That girl is special, Jim, and there's no way around it, but she's also not some freak!"

Kirk dragged a hand down his face. "Mr. Spock and I thought that she might be...influencing... key officers of the _Enterprise, _among other things_._"

McCoy pulled his thoughtful face. "Then why is Jasper Mann, who is in _Botany _of all places, be the most interested in her? Sulu, Chekov, Uhura and Chapel hardly know her!"

"It was only a hypothesis, Doctor," Spock answered.

"And it's full o' holes," McCoy pointed out. "If she was really tryin' to do that, Jim or you should be the one she'd work on, and she avoids you like she's allergic ta you!"

"There are her astounding mental capabilities to be accounted for, Doctor," Spock said.

"Which she notified us of as soon as she figured them out for herself!" McCoy riposted. "And as far as we know, they _hurt _her, and she's told me she hates them!"

Jim spread his hands. "If you have any ideas, Bones, please do share them."

"Wall I'm inclined to take her at face value, and blame the wormhole for our appearance here," McCoy drawled, sitting down.

"A wormhole that appeared out of _nowhere?_" Kirk asked skeptically. "And what about all that time she spends alone?"

McCoy really wanted to bang his head on the table. "H**l, Jim, I don't know! I just know that girl is a good girl, say what you may."

"Illogical," Spock noted.

"It's called human intuition, Spock. Try it sometime," McCoy answered, putting his feet up with a _thud_. "Y'know, Jim, you could just try talking to her. That might work."

"About _what,_ Bones?" Kirk looked mad enough to take on a Klingon battle cruiser minus the _Enterprise's _shields.

"About your concerns! She's real open with everyone about her."

Kirk stopped pacing. "Could that work?" he asked dubiously.

McCoy tipped his chair back. "Try it, Captain, _sir._"

TOS-TOS-TOS

Kirk and Spock stood outside Kathryn's door.

It was seventeen and one half hours.

"Riiight...let's go in," Kirk said softly. He rang the buzzer.

No response.

He tried again, but the door remained shut.

Finally, he keyed in the override code and the door opened.

Muffled sobs trickled towards them from the back of the dim room. Kirk stepped forward, followed by Spock.

"Miss? Miss Kathryn?" he asked, spotting a little grey heap on the floor that was her.

She cried harder. "Go...away...please..."

Kirk ignored that and went straight up to her. "Kathryn? Can I help?"

She did not answer.

Spock observed that a brown book lay open on the table. He walked over to it and scanned the pages.

_Jasper never showed up today; I really, really hope Spock wasn't grilling him about me. I really like Jasper, he's so nice but I'm worried b/c everyone I like in this world seems to die...I don't want to lose anyone else..._

_I'm so tired...I just want to go home. Is that too much?!_

_I just can't be around Kirk and Spock. I thought it would be amazing to meet them, but it's just awful. I wish I had arrived on TNG's Enterprise or during the reboot movies. Every time I see them, I can't help but think of what they become like...this is the reason I hated the movies...and Kirk's death scene..._

Spock stepped back, slightly stunned both from the rampart emotions in the room and the information he had just acquired. _Miss Kathryn knows how we will die?_

Kathryn jerked up. "Oh, no no no. Please tell me you didn't, Mr. Spock. Please!"

Spock looked at her. "No!" Kathryn gasped, seeing the open book. "You didn't!"

"Spock, what's going on?" Kirk asked in a low tone.

"I believe I have inadvertently glimpsed our future, Captain," Spock answered, eying the book with subtle distaste.

Kathryn buried her face in a handkerchief. "Great. Corking. Yay. Fantastic!" she muttered through little breathy sobs. "I don't wanna know what the Time Lords would think of THIS."

_Time Lords? _

TOS-TOS-TOS

It took some time to get Kathryn calmed down, even with Kirk's best efforts. _Spock is absolutely NO help in this situation, _he reflected gloomily as Kathryn refused to come out of her ball. _I should have brought Bones._

And it was rather embarrassing to have Kathryn reject him so thoroughly. _What is wrong with her? And why won't she let me help?_

Meanwhile, Spock quietly investigated the room. Kathryn was not neat, and various articles of clothing, sheets of music, old books, several library PADDs and her harp were all over. Her little 'snow-globes' also lay about on most of the surfaces.

He scanned some of the music. It was mostly folk songs, he gathered, that were arranged for her harp. Several sheets had handwritten music on them; he deduced that Kathryn also composed music.

The books seemed to fall into three categories, judging from the titles. Historical fiction, science fiction, and fantasy. Spock decided that Kathryn was surprisingly like his mother in her choice of reading materials.

His musings were interrupted by Kirk asking Kathryn, "Are you all right now?"

_Evidently, she has seen fit to uncurl herself, _Spock reflected.

"Yes...yes. I'm sorry you had to see that," she apologized, wiping her face off and blowing her nose. "Although...I'm surprised you came at this time. Pretty much everyone knows I don't see anyone at this time." She sniffed loudly and accepted his hand up.

Kirk looked embarrassed. "Ah...well, you see..." he trailed off, realizing that she was probably picking up on what he was thinking.

Kathryn smiled through hiccups. "I see. You think I'll read your mind." She shrugged and sat down on the bed. "I assure you, I don't do that, and I'm only hearing that you're nervous right now. Oh, I'm not _trying _to probe your mind," she added as Kirk looked at her in relief. "I have no idea how far I could get if I actually tried. Your nervousness is just...very obvious to me right now."

Kirk sat down hard. It always unnerved him to hear Kathryn talk so lightly of her abilities.

"Well, Kathryn, in all honesty...we needed to know what you did—do during the time you spent alone in your cabin, among other things."

Kathryn looked startled, then slightly annoyed. "You just saw what I do, _sir._" She sniffed again. "I cry my eyes out."

"I am sorry about that, Kathryn," Kirk told her sincerely.

"Not your fault. What else did you want to talk about?"

Kirk looked at her seriously. "Kathryn, we understand if you don't want to, but...would you consent to a...mind meld...with Mr. Spock?"

* * *

_A/N: Uh, oh..._

_The Time Lords are from Doctor Who. (Yes, I like that, and yes, Kathryn does too. :)) This will be the last update for at least two weeks. I will not be at home for any length of time during them, so I can't write. I do apologize to y'all. :(_


	21. Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

Kathryn's eyes went very big. "A...mind meld?" she asked faintly. "Are you quite sure you know what you're asking me to do?"

"You know what they are?" Kirk responded. _This could be difficult..._

"Um...yeah, don't ask me how."

She got up and picked one of her globes off the dresser. "Have mind melds ever been done on another telepathic species besides Vulcans, Mr. Spock?"

"It has been done before, but never as deep as we permit them to go with others of our kind," Spock answered.

"I see. Are mind melds a two way street?"

"Though your expression concerning the street is vague, it is in essence correct. If each participant is telepathic, it of course is more complicated, but in general, we have found that in a mind meld, both persons' minds are open to the other participant."

Kathryn nodded and set the globe down. She toyed with the bright pink scarf around her neck and walked around the low table.

"I would have to know—good heavens, come in!" she said as the door buzzed three times in quick succession.

The door opened and Scotty barreled through. "Captain! We need ye in t'Mess now!"

"Scotty..." Kirk said, rather annoyed.

"Captain, 'tis na an option!" Scotty answered, his accent thickening. "You have ta see this t'believe it! Apologies, lassie, but we really need the Captain."

He ran out. Spock quirked an eyebrow. Kirk sighed. _We were so close..._

"Let's go," he said shortly.

Spock followed him out of the room. Kathryn looked around, shrugged and trailed after them.

TOS-TOS-TOS

The first impression that Kirk had when he walked through the Mess door was "What is that _smell_?"

The next was "What _happened_ in here?"

The three were greeted by an oozing, slimy, multicolored mass of goop that was sliding out of three replicators. Spock's face was a study as the three looked at it, Kirk was the picture of disbelief, and Kathryn let out a little scream.

"Oh, my goodness, what _is _it?" she asked, gagging.

"It's the replicators gone mad, Kathryn!" Jade's voice called to her.

She looked up. Several people were perched on tables above the slime, including Jade and Jasper. Most of them looked horrified, some looked amused, and all had some of the slime on them.

Kirk swore most colorfully, then remembered where he was (or, more to the point, who was right next to him) and stopped. "Here, Kathryn, you'd better get on a table too," he said as the goop touched his boot. "I don't want your shoes getting into _this._"

He flashed his megawatt smile at her. She returned it, nodded and began to climb up on the nearest table. Miles Lamere gave her a hand up. "Hullo again," he said shyly.

Kathryn gave him a little smile and gagged. "Oooh, gross!" she muttered, rubbing her arm. "What happened?"

"Will SOMEONE tell me how and why this happened?" Kirk yelled above the noise.

"We dinna know, Captain!" Scotty was knee deep in the stuff, fighting with one of the replicators. "I just walked in an' met a bunch of screamin' crew and this! Ach! Laddie, don't do that!" he shouted as a redshirted Ensign pulled something, causing one of the replicators to spew faster.

Miles jumped down and waded over to his superior. "Sir, perhaps I could help you?" he asked hesitantly.

"Ach, laddie, your expertise is with dilithium!" Scotty's voice was muffled as his head and shoulders were pushed into a functioning replicator. "But ye can have a go at it."

Miles nodded and began tinkering with the panel beside the nearest broken replicator. Spock moved over to him, looking very like a cat picking his way through a mud puddle. Kirk shook his head, turned to the nearest comm panel and began snapping out orders as the goop oozed further into the room.

It was almost all over the floor now, and it did not look like Scotty could stop it. No one looked at all pleased with the situation now.

Kathryn squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed her temples. Jasper, two tables over, guessed that her mind was swamped with messages running along the lines of: _This is not good, this is terrible! How could have this happened? What caused it? What are we going to EAT?! Why do these sorts of things always happen on the _Enterprise_? _He sighed, trying to send a reassuring thought to her. _I hope she can hear me..._

_I wish I could help her out. She must have quite a headache! _thought Jade. _Poor kid._

Kathryn opened her eyes and turned to Tonia Barrows, who was standing next to her. "Ms Barrows?" she asked.

"That's me, Miss."

"Isn't that most of or all of the provisions for the ship?"

"It is, Miss.

"Oh, no."

"Indeed, Miss."

TOS-TOS-TOS

Six hours, several beaming-outs of muck into space, and a lot of mopping up later, Kirk and the command crew assembled in the Briefing Room to figure out what was to be done about the food situation.

It was not a merry meeting. Kirk paced around the room like a caged tiger, while Spock stood stiffly to attention in the corner. McCoy slouched over the table as if he had the mother of all headaches (which he could have, thought Uhura as she came through the door), Sulu had on his best poker face, and Scotty looked like a very worried puppy. Pavel looked like he was about to be shot and he had no idea why.. No one said anything, and as Uhura sat down, (she was the last to arrive) she noticed that the tension in the room felt like the tension on the Bridge when they were trying to find a cloaked ship on the prowl. _I really hope this turns out well...we could be in deep trouble._

Kirk stopped abruptly and turned on Scotty. "How much food do we have left?" he asked icily.

"Three weeks' worth, Captain. An' that's on rations." Scotty shook his head as the others looked at him in shock. "There's na other way aboot it."

"You couldn't salvage any of the spilled matter?"

"No sir. Th' cleaning crew was scrubbing parts of the floor at that time, and the chemicals got all mixed."

"I see."

Kirk wheeled on the others. "Any suggestions, gentlemen?"

Silence.


	22. Snippet Card!

**A/N: Since I will be out of town (again!) this weekend, and I have not had time to write, here is a collection of snippets from different parts of the story, so that y'all don't have to wait another two weeks. I'm sorry I can't give you more.**

**These are for everyone, but most particularly for copperdragon 2, Pip the Dark Lord of All, and LauraCynthia. Thank you three so much!**

"_We've been all over the place for food...I never understood how much we needed until now. Thank heaven we still have the clothing and thing replicators; we've been able to make money/that old thing called barter to pay two out of the five planets we've visited. The other three...!"_

TOS-TOS-TOS

Spock found himself in an uncanny representation of the _Enterprise's _Briefing Room. Three tall humanoids in long, ornate robes stood at the other end, and Kathryn, dressed in casual clothing sat between him and them. She looked distressed as she noticed the difference between her dress and the others.

"Oh!" she mouthed. In the flick of an eye, her clothing changed to a formal, deep green evening gown and the scene shifted to a comfortable lounge with overstuffed couches and a low table. Tall bottles and various drinking vessels stood on the table.

"What?!"

TOS-TOS-TOS

Doctor McCoy reeled and fell to the ground. Spock collapsed across the railing.

"What's happening? Spock? Bones? Answer me!" Kirk shouted, bolting out of his chair.

Sulu clutched his temples. "Sir...something's...invading..." he slurred out as Pavel grabbed his arm just in time to prevent him from falling out of his seat.

"What? Mr. Sulu, report!"

TOS-TOS-TOS

"She's the problem! Ever since we picked her up, we've had nothing but accidents and failures!" Ensign Gregson shouted.

Jasper whirled on him. "Is that what you really think, or are the Dwetans still messing with your head, Martin?"

Gregson sneered. "Everyone knows you two have something going on, Mann. Traitor!"

Nods from all over the mess affirmed this, and ugly mutters grew louder. Jade moved over to Kathryn and took up a defense stance. "We might want to get out of here, Jappy," she whispered to him.

TOS-TOS-TOS

Kathryn turned like a she-wolf at bay. "Is that what you really think? That I can just do what I please with these powers? That I view them as some kind of toy? Well, try this!"

She stared into Kirk's eyes. He felt himself tumbling over and over into a vast, swirling darkness...

_A/N: What did you think? Please tell me!_


	23. Chapter 21

_A/N: This chapter is dedicated to Pip the Dark Lord of All to help her get over her spate of depression and because she's my best friend, annoying as she can be. Hope you feel better, you old rascal! :)_

_Since I couldn't respond personally, Red, this will have to do. I really enjoyed every review you sent, and I'm glad you liked the story so far!_

_To the rest of the readers and reviewers: Thank you once more for reading/reviewing/favoriting/following/some combination of all the preceding!_

* * *

Chapter Twenty-one

_Personal Log of Lenonard McCoy, Stardate: Thirteenth Day of Unknowns, ridiculously late at night even for me._

_Tension on the ship is rapidly mounting. I think it's cuz of the strange food and not knowing where we are, obviously. We've been all over the place for food—literally! I never understood how much we needed until now. Thank heaven we still have the clothing and thing replicators; we've been able to make money/that old thing called barter to pay two out of the five planets we've visited. The other three...well, things didn't go so well on them. My Sickbay is full up from that last visit! All I wanna remember is that it involved critters who kin spit burning acid and have nothing humanly edible that isn't considered valuable. Luckily, after the first four attempts, Jim saw that we couldn't risk him goin' down in all the landing parties now, even more so than usual. He missed that last landing party by the skin of his teeth!_

_And DON'T get me started on the quality of food! Some is good, but the majority is downright awful! Purple goop and green milk are a few o' the milder specimens! _

_All our bad luck seemed to really ratchet up after the food replicators went down...old squabbles are being re-opened, crew are getting antsy all over again, and there's been a few 'incidents' in the gym that did not happen by accident. It's like some outside force is poking us with a mental stick, and likes to watch us scurryin' around..._

_Rumors about Kathryn are now runnin' riot all over the ship. Sulu's done his best, but the boy can't stop everything, especially as Jim ain't doin' anythin about them. Jasper, Jade, Uhura, Chapel, Scotty and myself still stand up for her, an' a few others, but quite a few are shunnin' her and more are keeping their distance. She's taking it real hard, and she stays in her room more and more often, coming out during gamma watch for a walk or swim. She's even stopped coming to Sickbay to play for the patients and staff. If I could get m' hands on the wretch who started them..._

_Y'know, I really hate space._

With a heavy sigh, Doctor McCoy shut the recording off and slumped down in his chair, putting his head on his desk. All he wanted was to sleep...right here...jus' for a li'l bit, y'know...yaaaaawn...

…..but, then (of *censored* _course_) the buzzer buzzed and someone entered the Sickbay.

"Do we have to bother someone?" Kathryn's voice plaintively asked. "I'd rather not..."

"Considering that we don't know if your ankle is sprained or broken, and also the fact that Jappy and I know just the basics, I don't see how we can avoid it." someone else—_probably Jade, and where Jade is, Jasper follows, _McCoy thought as he pulled his eyes open—answered.

_That's definitely Jade, Jasper and Kathryn. Wait...what happened? Kathryn's ankle is broken?! What the ****!?_

Some indecipherable mutterings filtered through the door, followed by the second voice saying, "Oh, I see. You don't want anyone else to see Jappy carrying you bridal-style through Sickbay!"

Kathryn yelped. Someone else called, "Hello?"

By this time, Doctor McCoy was at least seventy percent awake and rather grumpy. He yawned his way out of his office and into a brightly lit Sickbay.

"What's going on?" he asked the three through half shut eyes. _**** Kathryn's plaid is bright!_

"Kathryn's turned her ankle," Jade said.

"How?" McCoy asked, leading the way to a cubicle.

"Some _person _tripped her up in the hall, then disappeared," Jasper answered, setting Kathryn gently down on the biobed.

"Well, I was in heels. That's part of the problem." Kathryn said quietly, biting her finger.

"But you said he pushed you pretty hard," Jade said, taking Kathryn's shoes. "Besides, if you were dancing as you told me you would be, the heels can't have been that high—in fact, they're just little bits of heels. See?" She held them up. The heels were only about an inch and a half high.

"He did. I wore different shoes to dance in, though." Kathryn shut her lips tight as McCoy gently touched her ankle. He frowned and grabbed a scanner.

"It's very broken, girl," he said brusquely after reading the results. "Are you sure he didn't step on it after you fell?"

Jasper looked thunderous. Kathryn shook her head. "No, but one of the doors closed on it afterwards. Mr. Scott came through right after and I scooted out."

"Then I came along and found her on the floor, almost fainting," Jasper added.

"And I found him carrying Kathryn through the hall, and decided to come along," Jade finished.

Doctor McCoy ran the bone knitter over the ankle, wondering who would trip Kathryn up like that. No-one else said anything, but everyone looked. Kathryn looked scared, and she was holding Jade's hand rather tightly. Jade looked like she always did, but there was something about her eyes that Doctor McCoy had seen only once before—when Jasper came back from a landing party where he had acted bravely, but stupidly. And Jasper—well, he looked very, very angry.

_I'll get to the bottom of this, Kathryn. I promise you._

TOS-TOS-TOS

The dark figure moved in amusement in its bonds, tempered with a small amount of annoyance. _These small creatures are very fascinating. They are troubled easily over small things, but their minds are open and flexible...except for two. What makes them so rigid and unbending? Is it that they are different than the many others?_

_It is no matter. They will have to be exterminated. Only then can I have my full measure of enjoyment from these intriguing beings._

_And __**no one **__will be able to deprive me of this treat. For they are very small...and I have enough power to have my way in such small things._

* * *

_A/N: :) Review if you like? Or want to know more?_


	24. Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-one

"I'm telling you, these people have us in a choke hold, Bones! She's the only way out of it, unless you have someone else in mind who can communicate telepathicly."

"Yeah, Jim. _If _she consents." A muffled _thud _followed this statement.

"Well, um... "

"Y'need more than that, Jim. And if you wanna keep this private, lower y'r voice! At least three people have given us odd looks, and if she's still around, _she's _heard all this crap, and then y'r sunk!"

This last was said in lower tones as the Medbay doors opened. Nurse Chapel sighed and looked up from her PADD.

_By the sound of things, the Captain needs a painkiller and they are arguing about Miss Kathryn, _she thought as Kirk and McCoy walked through the door, Kirk rubbing his forehead and McCoy swinging a bag.

"Ah, hello, Christine," McCoy said absentmindedly as he headed for the painkiller cupboard.

"Hello, Nurse," Kirk said with a smile.

Chapel smiled as her boss tossed a bottle to the captain. "Here y'go. And is the hobgoblin already after her?"

Kirk caught it and popped off the top. "I don't know. I told Spock that I didn't care what time he talked to her, only that I was exhausted and I couldn't come with him tonight if he wanted to do it now."

"Humph. So, he's goin' to break this news to her, in his usual way, cuz it's oh_-_so_-logical _to get nasty things over with first_._ I'm telling you, I _really _think it's a bad idea. She's not even over her broken ankle yet, let alone everything else she went through, and Jade told me that she's basically hiding from everyone now!"

"Well, we are stuck here, in this tractor beam, until we can communicate in some other way! All Spock got was a deep sense that there is a telepathic lifeform down there that needs to talk to us!"

The voices died away as the two walked down the hall.

Christine Chapel shrugged and headed to Sickbay. _Sometimes, you can only pretend you've never heard a thing, _she thought to herself. _It's better for everyone's sake._

_But is it best for _Kathryn's _sake?_

TOS-TOS-TOS

"_*When you walk, through the storm,_

_Hold you head up high,_

_And don't be afraid of the dark_

_At the end of it all,_

_Is a golden light,_

_And the sweet silver sound of the lark..."_

Kathryn strummed a last broken chord and let her hands fall. "Hello, Mr. Spock," she said without turning around. "What brings you here tonight?"

"Miss Kathryn," Spock acknowledged, moving out of the shadows of the Observation Deck. "May I speak with you?"

"Of course, although, I give you fair warning—I'm not in a good mood." Kathryn answered, gathering several sheets of music up from around her seat in a window alcove. "Come, have a seat. I assume you can put up a lock on the door? I did set up a bit of a metal nudge to shoo people away, but I see that it was not effective."

Spock raised an eyebrow. _So, that is why no one else is on the Deck. Intriguing._

"Yes, but I do not think it will be necessary. Most people do not come here at this hour, and they generally do not frequent this part of the Deck," he answered, placing himself at the other side of the bench.

"Ah." Kathryn swept the stack of music onto the floor and adjusted the placement of her harp on her lap. She played a short glissando very rapidly. "Well, what is it?"

Spock folded his hands. "This morning, an unusual message was sent from the planet below us now to the Bridge. The inhabitants did not make use of the conventional methods; instead, they attempted to send a telepathic message. However, since Vulcans are primary touch telepaths, and no one else of the alpha Bridge staff is near communicating telepathic levels, the only part of the message that we were able to comprehend was that the beings that live on the planet below have a very important message that they need us to understand."

"I...see. And the Captain wants me to try and contact them?" Kathryn asked, playing three staccato notes on her harp.

"Yes, but only after...certain precautionary steps are taken."

"You mean that mind-meld he and you asked me about the day the replicators went nuts." Kathryn said flatly, hitting a discordant set of tones.

Spock did not wince at the harsh sounds; he closed his eyes for point zero three six Earth seconds.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to be that noisy. It's just...well, _I _don't know what I can and can't tell you! I've got no idea where in your timeline you are at, and what's happened here that I know about, and I don't even know how accurate my knowing about your future is! And if we go through on this, you are going to know all sorts of things that you shouldn't about your future and the Captain's future, and I just don't know how that would turn out, even if you never acted on that knowledge, and if you did, it could be a potential landslide for everyone and it would be all my fault!" Her voice rose as she spoke and at the end, she choked off the last few words.

Kathryn caught her breath, and ran her hand through her loosely bound hair. "I just can't do that," she said in a quieter tone, turning away. "Not when I've started to know everyone and care about y'all."

Spock said nothing, mentally going through his files on mind-melds with other telepathic creatures. _They are inexcusably sparse, _he thought, making a mental note to research this topic more fully.

"Well, _this _is just peachy," Kathryn sniffed, turning back after six-point-five-two minutes. Her face was wet, but she didn't seem to be crying now. "I don't suppose there is another way out?"

"Miss Kathryn, in your time with the Esterants, you communicated with them mind-to-mind, did you not?" he asked.

"Yes, we did for the most part." _Sniff._

"Did they teach you how to partition off sections of your mind that you did not want to share?"

"Not exactly. When we talked, one of the party would create a sort of mental room where we would all entered and send thoughts back and forth. We didn't actually enter each other's minds unless there was a great need to. When I first came, Ji'lep had to enter my mind because I couldn't respond to his invitation to enter the mental area he had made and he saw that I would die if he didn't find out what was harming me. Ji'lop had to do the same thing when he rescued me from the rebels, because I was unable to use my mind talk to anyone at that point. In Esterant culture, it was considered to be a grave invasion of privacy and could be severely punished, depending on how deep one searched. They didn't talk about it much—it was sort of a taboo subject," Kathryn added. "Much like some of your customs."

Spock's eyebrows jumped. He firmly pushed away any sort of speculation on just what customs she meant by her last sentence. "Could you create one of these mental places that you told me of and communicate with me by it?"

Kathryn smiled. "We both are flying blind, aren't we? Very well, I'll try, but I'm not sure how it all will work, seeing as you are a touch-telepath."

She closed her eyes. Spock watched with great interest as she began to move her hands to and fro across her lap.

Suddenly, her eyes popped open. "Why isn't it working?" she muttered crossly. "Oh!" A light dawned on her face, followed by a look of consternation.

"Mr. Spock, can we...hold hands?" she asked, blushing. "I'm sorry, but the usual methods aren't working on you, and I think this will help the process along a lot."

Spock's eyebrows jumped again. "Very well," he answered, extending a hand to her.

A hot little hand nestled into his. "I'm sorry," Kathryn murmured. "I know Vulcans don't like physical contact with others."

She closed her eyes again, and almost instantly, things began to happen.


	25. Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-three

After a few, brief seconds of confusion, Spock found himself in what appeared to be a dimly lit room. As he looked around, he saw that the walls were constantly shifting to and fro, flickering between different colors.

_/I'm sorry. The place isn't quite stable yet,/ _a voice apologized. _/Usually, the others helped me out in making these sorts of rooms, but I'm on my own now/_

Spock turned around and there was Kathryn. /_Now, if I can only—there!/ _She snapped her fingers and the room shifted into the _Enterprise's _Bridge.

/_What in the world is going on!/ _Kathryn's mental thoughts echoed around him as the Bridge disappeared, returning them to the dim room. Her figure faded out soon after, the face twisted in concentration.

As Spock stood there, he could hear distant murmurs of voices beyond the room. /_These are not all Miss Kathryn's thoughts/ _he realized as scraps of sentences and bits of emotional color trickled through to his mind.

/_No, they most certainty_ _are NOT/ _Kathryn answered him. A mental 'blush' followed those words, and Spock could 'feel' her embarrassment all around him. /_Believe me, I would not think that kind of stuff!/_

Spock reflected that, given the pieces of information he had acquired, the only logical explanation was that he was hearing others' thoughts.

_/Well, I'm glad you realized that wasn't me,/ _Kathryn said as the room shifted once more to a fair representation of the Observation Deck niche in which they had been sitting before. A few seconds later, everything firmed up around Spock, and Kathryn reappeared, sitting on the window seat.

/_Fascinating/ _Spock thought.

Kathryn smiled. /_It really is. You should have seen a mental room made by Ti'lace. She could make everything to suit individuals—if she made this room, it would have appeared differently to each of us./_

_/But that isn't why I made this. Now, where do we go from here?/_

Spock considered. Kathryn waited attentively.

/_Miss Kathryn, can you hear all of my thoughts?/ _

_/Oh no. Not here. I can only 'hear' the ones that you would say aloud if we were still physically talking to each other, or really loud ones./_

_/Wait. This doesn't qualify as a mind-meld then, right?/_

_/No it does not./_

_/Lovely./_

Spock refrained from asking Kathryn what exactly was 'lovely' about the situation, and began to think through all the cases of mind-melds he had experienced or heard about in his life. None of them applied to this situation.

/_Excuse me for interrupting you, but I think I've got a solution./ _Kathryn 'said'. /_Here!/_

All of a sudden, a multicolored tunnel appeared in the side of the mind-room, just big enough for Spock to walk through. /_If I've made this correctly, you can enter my mind now. I don't know how or if it will work though/ _she added. _/This is completely new for me, too!/_

She vanished. /_Coming?/ _her voice echoed through the tunnel with a decidedly impish tone.

Spock reflected that it was only logical to proceed and fulfill a) his captain's orders and b) some of these inexcusable gaps in the study of mind-to-mind communication.

He stepped into the tunnel.

It was bright neon colors and spun, he believed the human phrase was 'like a top', taking him along with it. It was also impossible to walk through it, if you were a Vulcan.

/_Sorry! I didn't mean it to be so like the Vortex. Big mistake. Here, is this better?/_

The tunnel shifted into an accurate representation of one of the _Enterprise_'s corridors. He proceeded along it to the door at the end, and opened it.

There stood Kathryn in the doorway.

/_Hullo! Come on in,/ _she smiled, stepping back.

He stepped through the door and into a completely new landscape.

TOS-TOS-TOS

The area in which he first stepped into was brightly lit—full of round seats, low tables, soft rugs and bookshelves all in vibrant colors. Books covered most of the chairs and lay about most untidily on the floor. On the closest bookshelf an Old Earth poster proclaimed "And they lived happily ever after" in curling script.

/_I think that each book is a memory, if I've build this place right. Try it./ _Kathryn 'said', throwing herself into a pink recliner and picking up a well-worn book.

Spock moved to the nearest table, picked up a worn, green book with cloth covers and opened it.

Instantly, he found himself in a wood of decidedly Earth origin, with the open book in his hand. As he looked through the trees, he saw two men fighting with heavy wood sticks on a narrow bridge over a rushing river. Suddenly, the larger man, with a clever twist of his hand, threw the other into the river with a loud shout.

_/Most intriguing,/ _he thought, shutting the book.

Immediately, he was back in the vibrant room.

Kathryn looked up from her book. /_Back so soon? Sorry, random thought, my bad./_

Spock summarized that that thought was to be ignored, and picked up another book, this one in light grey with a slight sheen to it.

Upon opening it near the end, he found himself on a battlefield. A man with long blond hair wailed over another person amid wreckage and dead bodies of men and...elephants? He shut that book instantly.

A thick, deep blue book with a strange pattern on the front drew his attention next. It drew him into a dark room. A woman in a low cut, red dress was in the foreground, her profile facing him. She said "Run. Run you clever boy, and remember me."

Spock shut that book quickly as well, reasoning that there was nothing of importance in _that._

The next book had an _Enterprise _ensign on it. He opened it and an-oh-so-familiar memory burst upon him.

Once again, he was in the throes of _pon farr, _trying so hard to get something out to explain Jim and Doctor McCoy's presence there on the hot sands of Vulcan. Once again, he could not speak, could not explain, could not plead. Once again, he felt that surge of uncheckable emotion swirling through him, his own, raw, physical power burning him, both devouring him...

Two soft hands closed around his, and forced the book shut, taking it away from him.

/_I'm so, so sorry. You were __**not**__ supposed to open that book. What did you see?/ _Kathryn's voice asked urgently. /_This is really important, Mr. Spock! Please...answer me!/_

Spock straightened up. /_I am...unharmed, Miss Kathryn. May I ask.../_

_/No! You may __**not.**_ _All you need to know is that that book has some of your past and a __**lot**__ of your future in it. This is exactly the reason I did not want this!/ _Kathryn was visibly agitated, and the room began to churn about them, the lights darkening. Her emotions began to trickled through to Spock for the first time during the 'meld'. /_What did you __**see**__?/_

_/A very painful memory from some time ago, Miss Kathryn./_

She relaxed and the room stabilized about them. /_Good. Carry on, then!/_

_/Miss Kathryn, where are we?/ _he asked, decided that a change of subject was in order.

/_I think we are in the section of my memories that deals with the books, films and tv I remember, judging by what I've accessed, and what you've gotten into. Do you need to get further in?/_

_/I think that would be a wise idea, Miss Kathryn./_

_/Oh, for heaven's sake! You're messing about in my mind, call me Kathryn! This way./_

She led the way past the bright bookshelves. Spock followed her.

Soon, they came to another, much darker door. Kathryn pushed it open.

/_Welcome to Family Memories, Mr. Spock./_


	26. Chapter 24

**A/N: It's been a long time. Far too long, in fact. I'm really sorry that I stopped so suddenly, but my muse packed her bags and took a trip to a different fandom, plus leaving me with the start of school and a boat-full of Real Life Issues. I hope you'll forgive me and that this chapter will make some of it up to you all. :)**

**The references to other fandoms in the last chapter are as follows: **

**Robin Hood ****(when he meets Little John)**

**The Lord of the Rings ****(Eomer finds his sister on the Pelennor Field.**

**Doctor Who ****(season seven, ep. one)**

Chapter Twenty-four

The first thing Spock noticed was the winds of emotion sweeping through the much larger room, carrying whispered thoughts.

_Can't go near there, that's all too sensitive, can't go here, wait, we're awfully open, CAN he hear us?don't wanna open THAT can of worms, shut up, he CAN hear us, you just try to, oh my goodness, we better not split right now, this is really, really bad timing..._

He looked around. They were standing in a small entryway, from which he could see three doors, leading into three different rooms. Through each doorway, fog trickled out, dark and cold.

Kathryn's form began shifting from a young woman to a child, to a girl, to something else that Spock couldn't quite make out before with an audible _pop _she settled back in her normal shape. The winds ceased abruptly, the fog cleared and the whisperings faded away.

/_Where do you want to go first?/ _she asked.

/_The first door will be adequate to start with/ _Spock answered, moving towards it.

/_All right—shouldn't be anything TOO awful in here...I hope! Oh wait, scratch that...Crap!/ _

This last was said as they walked in the door and found a wall of pictures. The first one that Spock noticed was a picture of a very angry Kathryn facing a man—he supposed her father. It was easily the largest in the room, and as he looked at it, it began to move.

"Why can't I? I'm sixteen—almost seventeen! Treat me as if I'm actually my age, for once!" picture-Kathyrn shouted. "Can't dance, can't sing in public, can't invite David over for dinner, can't do anything on social media, can't do anything at all! I am fed up with being treated like—like Julia! Let me grow up in my own way in my own time!"

She ran out of the room, grabbing at the old harp bag and another bag full of music.

/_Just look away, PLEASE, Mr. Spock!/ _real-Kathryn begged.

Spock turned to Kathryn and the picture shifted, then became still.

/_That's my last memory of my father, and it is not happy. Try this one instead./_

She moved towards another large picture. Spock turned towards it as it began to move.

It showed Kathryn merrily laughing with a boy who looked very like her. Several other young people skipped around them, and a small girl bounced happily on her lap. _This must be Tom, her twin and her other siblings, _Spock thought.

_/They are. We were all so very close.../ _Kathryn smiled and moved onwards.

As they walked slowly through the long hall, Spock surveyed the pictures. Many of them contained the same group of children he had seen in the previous picture. Others focused on landscapes, Earth animals and laughing people. One picture in particular caught his interest. It was a small picture showing the same group of children from before clustered around what he believed was an Old Earth "television", watching something that looked very like...the _Enterprise's _Bridge? He stopped to examine it more thoroughly. Was that an Andorian on the Bridge?

/_Oh, no, Mr. Spock. No, not that one either. Sorry!/_

The picture disappeared into the wall.

Kathryn looked at him sideways. The winds began to pick up again. _Oh, no, no, no...what's he gonna do...what about that third movie...SHUT UP!_

Spock inwardly began to calculate how much of Kathryn's mind he was actually seeing as they turned a corner that would not stay still. The pictures began to sway in the winds, shifting into a tangled web of gold, silver, copper and red that shone through the misty fog. Then, as Kathryn's figure disappeared and the fog closed in around him, Spock realized he was glimpsing her mind as it truly was.

And it was fraying rapidly, far too rapidly for his or her safety.

He had to get out.

TOS-TOS-TOS

"Spock! Spock, can you hear me? Spock!"

"Kathryn, it's high time you woke up, just saying."

"Kathryn! Kathryn? Are they all right, Doctor?"

"Bones, can you do anything?"

"Will youse all shut up and let me work!"

Spock drew back from the meld slowly, inch by inch. It was much more difficult to untangle himself from Kathryn's mind than any of the other minds he had contacted before. Her mind did not respond to his as he drew away from her, and near the end, went completely still. As his mind came back to his body, he realized someone was shaking him hard and talking to him.

"Spock? Spock, answer me! That's an order, Mister!"

Spock opened his eyes. He saw Kirk bent over him, his hands gripping Spock's shoulders. Kathryn was right next to him, with someone in Science blue hovering over her.

"Are you all right, Spock?" he asked.

"I am...functional, Captain. How is Miss Kathryn?" he said, drawing his hands away from Kathryn's.

"Spock. When did you start that meld?" McCoy's voice broke through to him.

"I believe we started at about twenty-one hundred hours, Doctor," he said slowly, sitting up.

McCoy's face darkened. "You were in her mind all that time?" he rasped, running his scanner over Kathryn.

"Not precisely, nor were we in a meld the entire time either."

"But you've been communicating with your minds that whole time, right?"

"Yes."

Kirk and McCoy exchanged looks. Spock noticed Jade and Jasper Mann in the background. They looked worried.

"Spock, it's oh nine hundred hours right now," Kirk said. "And she isn't waking up."

_A/N: Did you like it? Are you an old reader or did you just find this? Please tell me what you thought!_

_I will do my best to get back to posting every week again on Sundays, as I used to. Live long and prosper!_

_Mary Out._


	27. Chapter 25

_A/N: Hopefully, this chapter will begin the (slow) work of gathering all the threads of this story together! Thank you all for coming this far with me._

_Answers to guest reviews:_

_Red: Thank you! I'm so glad you thought it was good! _

_klycmep: Thank you for the review! :) And for the encouragement!_

_Now, on with the story!_

* * *

Chapter Twenty-five

_The dark figure moved the fraction it was allowed to and stirred with amusement. However, these small efforts were growing stale and old. He wanted something bigger, grander, more like the things he once was capable of doing. Instead, he was forced to remain in this form, dealing with some of the lowest of the rational species. Amusement disappeared into anger and helplessness as the dark figure pulled once again at the bonds which held him to that form._

_Perhaps Trelane was right—these small creatures were not worth the trouble one could get into. However, Trelane was young and foolhardy; also he had the subtlety of a Thasian and the pride of a Metron—a combination of two traits that their people thought themselves above by this point in time. Taking his past experiences with the species and his previous knowledge of Trelane into account, he decided it was time to discard that data in favor of what he had already observed._

_He shifted once more and desired to implement the second stage of the game as soon as he could._

_What good was eternity if one could do nothing?_

TOS-TOS-TOS

"Since my scanner is either on the blink or absolutely crazy, Spock, can you give me any hint at all what you two went through?" McCoy asked, in full professional mode. "Because I'm assumin' it wasn't just a mind meld, not with Kathryn bein' who she is."

"I am not sure what we both experienced in the time our minds were communicating, Doctor," Spock answered. "She has learned several techniques of mind-to-mind communication that were not known to us before; hence, we were not in a true meld until the very end. Thus, I do not know the consequences this might have on both of us—it is outside of my experience. I also have good reason to believe that she was, as you might say, "caught on the hop" and did not fully know what she was doing."

""What's wrong with the scanner, Bones?" Kirk asked absentmindedly, frowning.

"It can't decide whether Kathryn is in a deep sleep or in a coma! That's what's wrong!" McCoy ran the offending object over Kathryn again. "See? Now it says she's in a coma, when three minutes before I could swear it said she was just sleeping!"

"The logical response would be to obtain a new scanner, Doctor," Spock said calmly, sitting up. Kirk hovered over him, clearly still worried. "Captain, I am perfectly functional now," he added to assure him of his ability to preform his usual duties.

"Yeah, right Spock, except the itty-bitty fact _this_ one was _working _just yesterday and I really don't feel like recalibrating another scanner for _your _physiology plus humans again!" McCoy snarked, running it over Kathryn once more. "Damn!"

Kirk snapped his fingers and scrambled to his feet. "Now I remember who she's like! Bones, remember Charlie Evans?"

"I don't see how I could ever forget him, Jim, what with all the havoc he—oh. No, she is not like him a'tall, Jim!"

Spock arose to his feet and waved the Mann twins out of the room. Jade executed a smart right-about face and left promptly. Jasper looked mad, but trailed after his sister. "Are you supposing that Miss Kathryn could be similar to Master Charles, Captain?"

"I do believe that's what he said, Spock," McCoy drawled.

"Doctor, the captain's exact words were—"

"All right, you two, knock it off. We don't have time for this! Bones, does Kathryn need to go to Sickbay?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out, Jim!" McCoy snapped, patting Kathryn's face. "Kathy, it's time to wake up!" he continued in a softer tone, shaking her gently.

"She lets you call her Kathy?" Kirk asked.

"Been doing it fer awhile now, Jim. She likes it—says it makes her feel more at home. Come on, Kathy, wake up!"

Kathryn's eyes blinked open, then shut as she turned over. "'M not awake," she muttered sleepily. "Go 'way!"

"Miss Kathryn, that statement is illogical," Spock said.

Kathryn opened her eyes. "Whoever said _humans _were _logical_? 'Sides, I can't be awake right now; my mind's a mess!" she answered groggily, rubbing a hand across her face. "Just let me... sleep... some... more..." her sentence broke off in a yawn. "I'll be all right by tomorrow, hopefully."

She turned over and curled into a ball on the floor. Yawing again, she shut her eyes. McCoy ran his scanner over her and slammed it into his hand. "It says she's back in deep sleep, Jim. Any ideas?"

TOS-TOS-TOS

In the end, Kirk decided it would be best to lock down that part of the Observation Deck until Kathryn woke up sufficiently and get back to the Bridge with Spock.

The alternatives, after all, were not workable. Though she looked light, Kathryn was heavy, and Kirk wasn't quite sure that he would be able to carry her the whole way, even with the turbolift. (To say nothing of what it would look like to anyone in the corridors!) McCoy did not want Spock to carry Kathryn, hissing out a list of various reasons to support himself, and to wake her up again was not possible—they had tried it with even less success than before.

(McCoy did have the thought that Jasper Mann would probably like the opportunity to carry Kathryn back to her room, but he did not voice it.)

Kirk was not happy about doing this, and neither was McCoy, but Spock pointed out that it was 'only logical' before he walked out of the room, clearly expecting them to follow him. Kirk shrugged and began to follow him. McCoy brushed a lock of hair off of Kathryn's face and stood up.

"Huh. That hobgoblin might be 'perfectly functional' in his own words, Jim, but it's only a statement like that that keeps him out of my Sickbay!" he said crossly, trailing his captain.

"Well, Bones, more power to him!"

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_A/N: What did you think? Please tell me! :)_

_Until next time! Mary out._


	28. Chapter 26

_A/N: I am sorry for not updating, but the fact is I simply couldn't because of a bunch of RL issues and because I had I also can't make any more promises about updates; I will do what I can to update when I can. Again, I'm really sorry._

_Now, with all that out of the way, I hope you enjoy this chapter! Happy reading!_

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Chapter Twenty-six

_Captain's Log, Seventeenth Day of Unknowns_

"_...however, as of right now, we are still caught in the mysterious tractor beam above a planet whose inhabitants cannot—or will not communicate with us via the normal ways. This has been going on for sixteen hours now. However, I am sure that with Mr. Spock and Miss Kathryn Douglas' assistance, we shall be able to communicate with these people shortly. _

_Captain out."_

Kirk sighed and stared gloomily at the viewscreen. There was nothing else to do, at least until Kathryn woke up. _And until we get out of this *censored* tractor beam!_

But right now, the situation was out of his hands. And he really didn't like it.

Absently, he wondered how many logs actually represented the state of what they were talking about. Somehow, he doubted that many did—at least, not many of his did. However, he knew his crew was fiercely loyal, and the few that would talk would (more than likely) be written off as exaggerating the situations, especially with Sulu and Uhura's influence. _And I don't think I want to continue this train of thought_ he added as a painful memory of Admiral Carwright surfaced.

Shifting slightly in his chair, his mind drifted to what Spock had told him of his communications with Kathryn. The very idea of mind to mind communication without one or both minds being completely open to each other, let alone a race who communicated—_as far as we know—_in this way was indeed alien to not only the _Enterprise _but to the Federation as a collective whole. _What would be the ramifications of that on Kathryn?_

Kirk couldn't help but think of Charlie Evans again, even though it hurt. He had genuinely liked the kid at the start, in part because Sam had been very similar at that age, but mostly because the kid was so _young _and _clueless. _He still had the wonder in his eyes that was becoming increasingly rare among humans—awe at simple things that most people took now for granted. But...

Kathryn didn't have that awe, but she was refreshing in a different way. She was open and friendly, willing to talk to anyone about anything—at least for a little bit. She also gave off the same air as Uhura and McCoy did; the feeling that one could tell her almost anything and she would help you out. And she was young, just like Charlie. That combination, plus the fact that in Starfleet, you learned to make friends quickly, couldn't help but be attractive to a closed off community who enjoyed everything new.

_Here's the problem! She's gotten herself integrated with us, _he thought suddenly. _What if she __**isn't **__what she's told us?_

Right away, he wondered where that thought came from. He prided himself on being able to assess who had a hidden agenda and who didn't, and his gut told him that Kathryn did not. Besides, she had been on the _Enterprise _for over two weeks and done nothing to ring alarm bells. She had been keeping secrets...but, then, if she did have knowledge of the future, what else could she do?

_Are you sure? Are you sure? Are you..._

_Enough! _He slammed his fist down, willing the voices to silence.

"Sir?" Sulu's voice cut through the cloud of doubt.

_Now what?_

TOS-TOS-TOS

"So, Jade, do you have an explanation? Because I'd really like to hear it." _Thump, thump, thump._

Jade sighed and moved the scanty Starfleet pillow. "I don't know why most people seem to be avoiding you now, Kathryn. I agree, it doesn't make any sense, given that they were talking to you just a few days ago, but it might have something to do with the rumors. One, that Mr. Spock couldn't mind meld with you due to some extraordinary power you have, and the other which says that you can but won't communicate with the beings that are holding us in a tractor beam. Jasper says it's all bunk and I think it's odd and needs an explanation. Would you please stop thumping?" she finished, rubbing her temples.

"Oh!" _Thump. _"All right, I will." Kathryn said agreeably, smoothing the regulation blanket with a wriggle on the bed. "Sorry I was catty earlier. It's just so exasperating."

Jade smiled at the voluble little person next to her. It was difficult to stay cross at Kathryn when she was being charming, and today was no exception.

They sat together quietly as Ruby Mells, Jade's roommate came in, only to throw a very queer look at them and back out hastily without so much as a word.

"There! That's exactly what I've had to put up with all day!" Kathryn scowled. "Dr. McCoy's checked me, I'm fine, I didn't hurt anyone except my own self and I don't have superpowers!"

"Did Mr. Spock mind-meld with you, then?" Jade asked.

Kathryn wriggled. "Ummm...not exactly. I think I had too much control, he didn't know what to expect, and we both didn't quite know what was going on while we did it. I don't know. And I can't really think about it for some time; I need time off of thinking for a bit."

This did not reassure Jade in the least. It seemed to be an evasion. "What exactly do you mean by 'time off from thinking'?"

"Exactly what I said. Look, I, well, um, it's really difficult to explain, Jade, _especially _right now. The best explanation I can give at present is that I made a mental room and Mr. Spock entered it to talk with me. Making those rooms without help is very difficult and wore me out. Is that enough?"

Before Jade could answer, Jasper came in, looking harassed. "Oh, good, I was hoping to find both of you here," he said. "The lower decks have erupted with rumors, and they are much worse than the ones before. Jade, we're involved now too. Oops!" The nightstand/table swayed as Jasper tripped against it.

Kathryn looked upset. Jade shrugged and rescued _The Count of Monte Cristo _from the table. "It's not like we were ever popular before, Jap."

"I know, but this isn't a small thing at all. I don't know what's going on, but people are believing this crap and no one is countering them!" Jasper plopped down on the edge of Ruby's bed. "Oh, and before we get someone on the buzzer, Kathryn, the comm's been whistling for you nonstop. They want you in the Briefing Room."

"Great day in the morning!" Kathryn grumbled, sliding off the bed. "Just what I needed. Any handy Jeffries' Tubes I can use to get there?"

Jasper barked a laugh. "I'm afraid not. Want me to come along?"

Kathryn dithered in the doorway. "Um...if you don't have anything else to do, I would like it. But you don't have to just because of me."

"I'll come then. It's no bother at all," Jasper got up and offered his arm to her. Kathryn laughed, took it, and they walked out of the room together.

Jade sighed and opened the book, hoping to lose herself in Edmond Dantes' troubles for awhile. Her own thoughts about Kathryn were too much for right now.

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**A/N: Surprised? Intrigued? Bored? Please tell me what you thought!**


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